Illumination
by michael.mcanally36
Summary: Naruto discovers a kekkei tota, Bloodline Select, among other achievements during his Academy days. Go through Naruto's trials as he navigates a new ability. He even has a blood relative raising him, see who it is, why don't you? Bloodline Select: Light Release; Bloodline Limits: Magnet, Explosion, Plasma; Dojutsu: Kidogan (Eye of Luminance)
1. Illumination

Naruto was written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

**Illumination**

Twelve-years-ago, a nine-tailed fox suddenly appeared. Its tails lashed out, smashing mountains and sending tidal waves crashing to the shores. The ninja of the Hidden Leaf, rose up to defend their village, from its monstrous rampage. "Hold the attack, and wait for the Fourth," a shinobi roared, he had already been in combat with the beast, and had a cut over his left eye to prove it, before he too resumed his attack on the brute!

"It's getting closer," another desperate sounding ninja stated, "don't let it near the village." He sounded for all the world, like a worried father and husband.

Meanwhile, the fox continued its mindless seeming rampage, its every step crushed the very ground it stood upon. Then appearing out of nowhere, was a giant toad, wearing a kimono jacket, carrying a tanto, and smoking a pipe. Atop the toad's head, stood a man, he had blonde-hair, with jaw-length bangs framing either side of his face, blue-eyes, and wore a serious expression on his calm face. His attire consisted of a standard Konoha uniform, with two bands on both of his sleeves, a green flak jacket, blue forehead protector, and blue sandals. He also wore a short-sleeved long white haori over his normal attire, closed in the front by a thin, orange rope. The haori was decorated by red flame-like motifs on the edges, with the kanji for "Fourth Hokage" (Yondaime Hokage) written vertically down the back. He faced the Kyūbi no Kitsune, in mortal combat, sacrificing his life to subdue the beast, and seal it in a human body. He was, the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, aka, the Yellow Flash.

* * *

Uzumaki Compound: twelve-years later

The golden-haired, kept long, full and well-maintained, in a simple top-knot which still allowed it to reach his shoulders, the blue-eyed, twelve-year-old boy, took a deep, calming breath while his eyes were closed. He held the black tsurugi blade in his dominant left-hand, with familiarity and confidence, but not arrogance, he knew he was not the kenjutsu master his mother had been, not yet at least. Naruto Uzumaki opened his eyes, and looked across from him to the woman, waiting for him to strike. He was dressed in a navy-blue short shirt kimono and matching pants, under which he wore mesh armour that is visible at his wrists and ankles, a haori, the same golden shade as his hair with two violet Uzumaki spirals on each side, and ninja sandals the same color as the haori.

The woman standing in front of him, was his aunt, his mother's half-sister, Uzumaki Yugao, a young woman, age 22, with straight, purple hair, reaching down to her waist, with warm brown eyes, and a shade of red lipstick. Normally, when on duty, or about to go on duty, like now, she wore a standard ANBU uniform, consisting of black and grey armour, metal arm guards and a katana, strapped to her back. She has the signature ANBU tattoo on her right shoulder. Her mask, hung low over her chest, it is a porcelain mask, resembling a cat, with three red stripes - one vertical stripe on the forehead and two horizontal stripes, one on each cheek. She was allowed to adopt him, when she became a Chunin, at the age of sixteen, before that he lived on the streets, after he turned four and the orphanage kicked him out.

For some reason, the village council tried to block her adoption of him, until she, with the aid of the Hokage, sent a petition to the Daimyo himself, along with medical records and an affidavit from Senju Tsunade, herself, attesting to the fact that they were blood related. Uzumaki Kushina, his mother, was Uzumaki Yugao's half-sister, that year was also the year when Senju Tsunade returned to the village and assumed the mantle of Fifth Hokage. During that time, Tsunade decided that it was time the council was reminded that Konoha's government, was not a democracy, but a military dictatorship. The council, even the elders, served at the Hokage's pleasure, several council members were removed from office, those that protested too vehemently had their heads removed. The Elders were all retired, Elders Homura and Kotaru went into retirement gracefully, Elder Shimura however, tried to protest with force, and was reminded of why Tsunade was a Sanin, there was a Village wide purge of all ROOT ninja. Those that could be redeemed were sent to sanitariums, others were given merciful deaths.

The Elders were replaced shortly thereafter by people, Tsunade could trust, her sensei and former Third Hokage, the new Head of the Uchiha clan and Chief of the Konoha Police Force, and for the first time a civilian, the owner of Ichiraku's Ramen Stand. The former Head of the Uchiha, Fugaku, had become a missing-nin, but nobody knew why.

Naruto's attention returned to the present, but his aunt, was not where she was before. In a blur of motion, she appeared right in front of her nephew, as she swung her own blade toward his neck. "You should stay focused in battle, Naruto-oi," she admonished with a smirk, "the enemy will not show you any mercy."

Naruto ducked low, below her swing, and pivoted counter-clockwise, bringing his foot behind the ankles of his aunt. Yugao gave a small hop as his feet passed hers, this presented Naruto's back to her, but before she could capitalize on his position, he rolled forward, before pivoting back to ward her off with the point of his sword. He blinked, because she was no longer there, when he suddenly felt the point of a kunai, against his throat. He looked up to find his aunt staring down at him with a grim expression, "what had you so distracted, Naruto," she asked, as he surrendered, "even when we started training together, I never got the drop on you this badly?" Yugao stood back, returning her katana to her scabbard.

Naruto sighed, "I was daydreaming about the past," he told her, "before that, I was wondering what I always wonder…"

"… about why the villagers hate you," she concluded for him.

"As you know, I've been studying Uzumaki fuinjutsu, and I found out something interesting, about the biju. Did you know, they cannot be killed," Naruto explained, "they can be discorporated for a time, but being made of pure chakra, they will eventually regenerate. The _only_ way to make sure they can't hurt anybody, is to seal them inside a person, the nine's chakra is so potent however, that anybody but an infant would be corrupted by it's influence, because their chakra coils don't fully form, until the eighth day of life for a boy, twelve for a girl. I know, I was born on the day the Nine-tails attacked," Naruto began, as he reasoned, "I've also found out, I was the only child born that day." Yugao felt a trickle of sweat begin at the nape of her neck and make its way down her back, _did he figure it out?_ Then, he lifted up his shirt, "then there's this," he stated as he channeled chakra from the region, below his belly-button, and like a phantom being revealed, a spiral, looking a lot like the Uzumaki spiral, surrounded by different runes, and calligraphy appeared. "This is the eight-trigrams sealing array," Naruto explained, though from the look on her face, as he studied her, she knew exactly what it was, "Aunt Yugao, boom, Boom, BOOM…

* * *

…BOOM

Uzumaki Yugao sat up abruptly, the explosions outside her window, had woken her up. Pushing back the covers, Jonin ANBU, call sign: Cat, stepped to the window over-looking the training ground of their clan compound. There she saw her beloved nephew, pounding his fists into the earth, in apparent frustration. Naruto is a ninjutsu prodigy with three nature affinities: Earth, Wind, and Lightning; and three kekkei genkai: magnet release (Wind and Earth), explosion release (Lightning and Earth), and plasma release (Lightning and Wind), but because of the strict requirements of the Ninja Academy, had failed his Genin Graduation Exam twice already. It was always the same jutsu too, the clone jutsu, the Hokage set the requirements for the Exam in stone, and just because someone has a special ability, does not give them preferential treatment. Tsunade made sure, her ninja remained humble and knew the basics before they moved on to better things.

Everything else with Naruto's education was pretty good, he was above average in Academics, only the Haruno girl surpassing him in grades, but she was a fan-girl for Uchiha, _practically useless_, as far as the violette-haired kunoichi was concerned. As far as ninja skills went, he was a force to be reckoned with for a Chunin, _don't get me started on Academy grads, and other Genin_, she thought proudly, though he never showed his full potential at school. He never wanted to call undo attention to himself, and risk abduction by Cloud, like his mother, and the Hyuga heiress almost were. Only the Hokage and the Elders knew of his kekkei genkai, though his three nature affinities were common knowledge.

He, of course, being an Uzumaki and her nephew, was a phenomenal swordsman, and a genius at sealing arts, already reaching the intermediate levels, he was particularly interested in Space-Time Sealing: like the Hiraishin, and Summoning Arts. He did not need kenjutsu or fuinjutsu, to pass the class, those were additional skills that made him unique.

If he went all out with his martial arts training, he could decimate those brats in his class, there are few Chunin that could equal his might, and only one Genin, Gai's little clone, though he allowed himself to be defeated repeatedly by his classmate, Sasuke. His kunai jutsu and shurikenjutsu would make even a few Jonin, proud, and add a weapon to his taijutsu, and there were very few Jonin who could defeat him, unless they used their experience against him. Though again, he only allowed, Itachi's little brother to best him.

Only in ninjutsu, did he allow himself to excel, except for the clone jutsu, he really was a genius at using his chakra, his chakra-control was the best she had ever seen for a Genin-level ninja. He can substitute himself with anything equal to his mass or smaller, within a hundred meters, faster than the eyes could blink. Yugao chuckled to herself, one of his favorite tactics is to switch places with the thrower, whenever someone throws a weapon at him. Naruto can even use other objects in his substitution, he once used it to substitute Sarutobi's grandson, who had climbed atop a tall building and became trapped, into a pile of dead leaves, with only a twig as the substitute, he calls it, Surrogate Substitution. If that was not enough, he invented an interesting innovation on the Transformation technique, he calls them True Transformations, and he can change himself at the genetic (animals and plants) or molecular (inanimate objects) level into anything, and it's a solid change, not an illusion. He can actually fly when he becomes a bird, and even has a menstrual cycle when he becomes female, though after some tests conducted by Tsunade and Shizune, he is infertile in any form but his natural one.

The only problem he has in his ninja arts, and this is where having such massive chakra reserves, High Sanin levels and growing every day, can be a double-edged blade. The chakra control needed to create illusions, is all but impossible, and required a lifetime to perfect. Everything from S-ranked genjutsu to the Academy clone technique, were out of reach for people like Naruto, and thanks to the Kyūbi's power being drained into Naruto, several times per second, such control would remain out of his reach, and nobody could tell him why. The law passed by the Sandaime, was still in effect, and an S-ranked secret.

Yugao walked away from the window, went into her closet and got ready for the day. After getting dressed she went down to eat, she saw another set of dishes drying in the rack, telling her Naruto had already had his breakfast. It was a few minutes later, as she finished, when she heard, "Awesome, woo-hoo," coming from the backyard, not a minute later, Naruto came slamming through the door, with a mile-wide grin on his face, followed on his heels by another Naruto, followed by two more! Their kitchen was suddenly full of Narutos, and the last one through, turned and closed the door. There seemed to be something different about his eyes, they were no longer the violet color of his mother. They seemed to glow an eerie white, the pupil was elongated into a diamond shape, Naruto immediately began to speak, Yugao could tell he was excited, "I did it, Aunt Yugao, I did it!"

Even though she knew what he meant, she still asked, "what did you do, Naruto-kun?"

If she thought his smile, could not get any brighter, she was wrong, "I finally succeeded in making a clone, and their not just any kind of clone, their solid, and," he looked over at the other clones and nodded, which was returned. Then, in a flash of light, an owl perched on a counter, a plasma blade formed in another hand, and some silverware was orbiting a Naruto's head, "they can perform on their own. Ninjutsu, taijutsu, chores, meaning D-ranked missions, or even run errands. Even better than that," he said as he moved over to the one with the orbiting spoons, "watch this." Naruto gave the clone a moderate punch to the face, which only turned the clone's head, nothing happened, there was not even a trickle of blood running down his cheek, there was only a small crack, with a kaleidoscope of light shining through. An instant later, and a small flash of light, the crack was gone. "They're perfect for taijutsu practice, don't dispel unless the task they were created for is completed."

Yugao's awed expression, turned to a pleased one, as she jumped up and gathered the one talking into a hug. As she did so, the other three dispelled in a flash of light. The back door opened again, "hey, Aunt Yugao, why are you hugging a clone," the expression on her face was priceless, "I sent them in to test another capability, memory transference. They are a perfect scouting tool and will help with training."

Yugao was thoughtful, "they almost sound like the shadow-clone jutsu, invented by the Second Hokage," she mused out loud. Naruto's eyes widened, but she explained, "it's a kinjutsu in the sealing scroll, there was no way you could've learned it, unless the Hokage wanted to play favorites, and you know she doesn't do that."

Naruto nodded, "That's true."

"This one is better than that one, because, if there's a drawback to that Bunshin, it's the fragility of it, with this Bunshin, you don't have that failing. What do you call these Bunshin," she asked?

"I'm calling them, Senkō Bunshin no jutsu, or Flash Clones," Naruto answered?

"Do you think you could teach me, this jutsu," she asked hopefully?

"After everything you've done for me, I would be happy to teach you," Naruto said to her, causing Yugao to smile, "but I don't think you can learn it, Aunt Yugao."

"Why not," she asked, slightly hurt, "you don't think I have the chakra reserves?"

"It's not a matter of chakra," she looked confused, so he elaborated, "in order to create my Flash clones, I combined all three of my nature affinities into one jutsu, when I did that, something changed inside me, I don't know what it was, but I may have discovered something."

"What," Yugao asked, immediately more concerned for her nephew, who was as much a son to her, as any she may birth in the future, than herself, "what did you find?"

Naruto's face was radiant as he spoke, "I found, Luminance, Aunt Yugao, which is why I've named it, Kidōton, also called, Light Release."


	2. Naruto of the Leaf

**Naruto of the Leaf**

The next day was Monday, Naruto arrived at school at his usual time, but as he was approaching the door, he reached out to open it, when the door just slammed open, hard. The few, who were in the classroom already, looked over at the sudden noise. This had been happening since yesterday, weird things, like books floating to him, lights coming on as he entered the room, before his hand even went toward the switch. Luckily, his eyes reverted to their original color, and it appeared he did not need them to summon a Flash clone, when they were activated, strange things seem to happen to his perceptions. People seem to move, almost at a stand-still, not only that, he seemed to be able to see things he should not see. Which was something he did not want to think about, not until he understood more about his new ninjutsu style.

Naruto saw the other kids staring at him in annoyance, he just stood there embarrassed, but chuckling and scratching the back of his head. He carefully reached over, and making sure he actually touched it this time, carefully eased it shut. Then he quickly, walked with his head down to his normal seat, he quickly and still carefully, moved his chair back, sat down and scooted forward. Naruto looked around to see, who had gotten to school ahead of him, there was: Hinata Hyuga, the timid and kind, but beautiful and deadly, heiress to the Hyuga clan.

When she was four, she was nearly kidnapped by the leader of the diplomatic delegation from Kumo, her uncle Kizashi and her father, were able to get to her in time to prevent abduction, they were forced to kill the delegate, and the Raikage demanded the head of the two responsible or risk a war. Tsunade would have none of it though, and despite the Sandaime's urging to comply, she called the Thunder Shadow's bluff. She had the entire delegation seized and held hostage, which allowed her to get a hold of their diplomatic papers, and among those papers were orders signed by the Raikage himself, it stated that the true purpose of the delegation was to seize any and all opportunities to cripple Konoha, so he could go to war and destroy them.

When this was learned, she did the one thing nobody expected her to do, she told on him. She sent copies of the delegations orders to every embassy in every nation Kumo traded with, warning them to be careful of Clouds bearing gifts. When word reached the daimyo of Kaminari of his Raikage's use of diplomacy to sabotage other nations, he was livid. The international rules of diplomacy between nations, was set forth by the Emperor himself, and for a nation to violate those rules was unheard of, the Lightning Daimyo, publicly censured his Raikage, and ordered him to issue a public apology, not only to Konoha and Fire Nation, but to all the nations he sent diplomatic missions to, all of which were ordered to return home, and were now restricted to one or two delegates per mission.

That event changed the Hyuga heiress, it made her buckle-down on her training, so much so that she was in the running along with Sasuke Uchiha to be Rookie of the Year. Naruto had watched her fight, and was impressed, and concluded, that in a pure taijutsu match, if they ever went all out against each other, he doubted whether he would win. He had watched her and her kinsman, Neji perform their taijutsu style, at different times. Neji was stiff and slow, looking more like a marionette, than a real boy. Hinata however, moved like she was dancing with an unknown opponent, it was a dance of death. Her relationship with Naruto, was complicated, he knew she had a crush on him, and he was nice to her, courteous, and kind, but he never wanted to lead her on, his feelings for her were not the same. Naruto was happy to be her classmate, friend, and hopefully teammate, but he has no romantic feelings for her at all. He has always preferred, more mature ladies, at least, since he started liking women.

The other two here before him, were both boys, Shino Aburame, and Sasuke the bastard. The Aburames, were an odd clan, they seemed to be ultra-logical, and reasonable to the extreme. They share a symbiotic relationship with a hive of insects, which live within their host, feeding on their chakra, in exchange, they aid them in combat. Naruto, if he ever fought Shino, would try to use his lightning release to turn himself into a bug zapper, just the thought of those bugs crawling on him, made his skin crawl. Shino and the Uzumaki had a cordial working relationship and were neutral with each other.

Naruto, turned his gaze on the other class member, already here this morning. Sasuke Uchiha, to say the two boys hated each other, would be a mild description of their relationship. In Naruto's estimation, Sasuke represented the worst example of what a clan nobleman should be, even worse than Neji, and neither had any reason to put on airs. Neji, was a branch family Hyuga, and would never be in danger of becoming clan chief, unless four people in front of him were unable to do it, for whatever reason. Sasuke at least had a more legitimate reason for being cocky, he was second in line, after his older brother, Itachi. At the moment, his mother was the clan chief, after his father became a missing-nin, in a failed coup attempt. When Naruto was placed in this class, he observed Sasuke's attitude with his own eyes, Sasuke was top dog in everything, except academics, and then, second only to Sakura Haruno. Sasuke would be a shoe in for Rookie of the Year for this class, which would grow his ego out of all proportions.

So, Naruto took it upon himself to teach the Uchiha, a lesson in humility, it became a driving goal, something other than the finish line to strive for, something that would satisfy the Gods of Karma and perhaps make the village better overall. Naruto started this class as the dead last, as he did before, after his first failure, but he quickly advanced through the rankings of the class, until, after five months of hard-work, he was just behind Sasuke. Naruto decided to stay there at the time, because until he was put in a position to complete the Genin exam, his plan would not matter. Now, however, with the completion of his flash-clone technique, his goal was almost ready to come to fruition. It would just need a cherry on top to make the embarrassment, that much sweeter.

Last night, as soon as, his and Yugao's excitement had been reined-in, they sent their respective clones off to the Hokage, hers a shadow-clone, and his Senko Bunshin, to make sure he could use that clone in the Exam. It was confirmed, and 'quote: if Orochimaru could use mud clones during his genin exam, you can use your flash-clones. The guidelines set forth by jiji, and Madara-teme, state that any clone technique the student knows is admissible for the exam, but I'm classifying this new Kidoton an S-ranked secret, until you're a Chunin, until then, do what you can to develop it in secret. These Bloodline Selects are rare enough as it is, I know of only one other in existence. We'll have any number of villages trying to get their grubby little hands on you, and they won't always come in force. A kunoichi batting her eyes at you, would be all that was needed to get their hands on your seed, therefore until further notice, no girlfriends: end quote.'

As, Naruto was lost in his memories, the rest of the class filled-up, they were chatting amongst themselves. Naruto welcomed his best-friend, Kiba Inuzuka and his companion, Akamaru. For some reason nobody could think of, Naruto's senses seemed to be more acute than most children, for example, Naruto could hear a pin drop in another room, and even before acquiring his Kidogan, last night, Naruto had excellent night-vision, and the whisker-like birthmarks on his cheeks, were in fact very sensitive touch organs. They along with his sensitive ears, allow him to sense the difference in air pressure, and locate unseen obstacles, when even his night-vision is hampered. These senses, coupled along with an acute sense of smell, make Naruto as at home at night, in the dark, or otherwise low visibility, as he is in broad daylight. Naruto was never afraid of the dark, and he had an excellent sense of direction.

It was for this reason, and because Aunt Yugao was best of friends with Kiba's older sister, Hana, she introduced Naruto to Kiba. Naruto needed someone who could understand him, and because not only can Naruto, Kiba, and the other Inuzuka hear in frequency ranges greater than humans, they could also speak in those ranges. In truth, Naruto is able to hear in a slightly broader frequency threshold, than Kiba and other Inuzuka, but the difference is not that great. The Inuzuka were one of the few clans in Konoha that have totally accepted Naruto, therefore they allowed Naruto and Kiba to under go the clan's sensory training together. For that reason, Naruto and Kiba have become like brothers. Kiba was just below Naruto in taijutsu and kunaijutsu, as well as kunai-taijutsu, and what Kiba lacks in stamina, like Naruto, he makes up for in true grit. Like a hound that will not quit once it has a scent, Kiba refuses to back down unless somebody makes him. Kiba has a heart-of-gold, and a silver-tongue, that could charm the birds out of the trees, and he is tenacious in backing up his friends.

As Kiba sat down next to Naruto, speaking in lower than human frequencies, the blonde touched Kiba's shoulder, and whispered, "I did it, Kiba."

The Inuzuka turned a confused eye on Naruto, "did what," he asked responding in kind to Naruto?

Naruto just smiled huge, "what have I been trying to do for almost eighteen-months?"

Kiba thought hard for a moment, then realization dawned, "you're kidding," but Naruto shook his head, still grinning huge, "you have to show me," he burst out!

Naruto nodded, "I will, but not here, I'm going to keep it under wraps until the Exam," he said.

"Why," Kiba wondered?

"One of the first rules of combat," Naruto reminded him, "never show your strength, until the last possible moment."

As this was happening, the door to the classroom slid open, through it, walked two men: Iruka Umino, and Mizuki, they were the two instructors for this class. Mizuki has white, shoulder-length hair with blue-green eyes. He wore the standard attire of the Konoha-nin, which included a flak-jacket and forehead protector, which he wore like a bandanna. Iruka-sensei is a man of average height and build. He has brown hair that he keeps in a ponytail, dark eyes and a scar that runs across the bridge of his nose, which he has had since his youth. He wears the standard Konoha shinobi uniform, complete with forehead protector, sandals, and flak jacket, his sleeves are also rolled up a quarter of the way.

The two were as different in personality as they were in appearance. Mizuki was, in Naruto's estimation, oily, he was polite and friendly, sometimes overly so, he had tried to charm Naruto's Aunt a time or two, but though she was polite in her dealings with him, she never even gave an inkling that she was wilting towards him. _Aunt Yugao is too savvy to be taken in by snake-oil salesmen like him, not when she's got Hayate-san, now _there's_ a man I wouldn't mind seeing her with, once I'm a Genin. She deserves to have her own kids, not be burdened with a vagrant like me._ Iruka was a much more serious person, who always seemed to be laser focused on anything he does, he barely let's any of his emotions show on the surface. Whether his students succeed in graduating or not, or fell off a cliff and died tomorrow, he would never be seen to give a shit, he would just go on with class as if nothing momentous happened. Iruka was as emotional as a plank of wood, in Naruto's point-of-view, although when he looked at Naruto, Iruka looked almost as if he were about to attack him.

"Alright, class, settle-down," Iruka ordered, with all the emotion of a tree, the class complied and got underway, "today, we will practice the henge no ninjutsu for the exam." There was a collective groan from the student members of the class, Naruto included, though it was only on the surface that he felt that way. After an hour, most of the class had already gone, all that were left, was Haruno, Naruto and the Uchiha, Sakura was up at the moment.

"I'm Sakura Haruno, here I go," she exclaimed. She placed her hand in the proper hand sign, "Transformation," she yelled! Then with a small expenditure of chakra, a clear image in her mind of what she wanted to become, and a puff of smoke later, a perfect replica of Iruka stood in her place.

"Henged into me," Iruka stated, though if he was flattered for the ego-boost you would not have known it, "Okay." Sakura exclaimed her achievement as she returned to her true form. [**I kicked butt,**] inner Sakura cheered! "Did you see that, Sasuke-kun," she asked, though from the bastard's attitude, she might as well have not existed?

"I think you did very good, Sakura-san," Naruto praised her.

Sakura turned to him with disdain, though there was a hint of a blush on her cheeks, "I wasn't asking you, Naruto-baka," she snapped at him, though her tone sounded forced, and the red in her cheeks intensified, but Naruto missed it and just sighed! _Try to do something nice for someone…_ he grated in his mind.

"Sasuke Uchiha, you're next," Umino called. As the bastard went up to practice his jutsu, Naruto felt the back of his neck tingle, then grow a little warm, he surreptitiously looked around, before spotting what he could only describe as a hole in the atmosphere. What was truly mind-boggling though, was that he could see the Hokage's beautiful face, peering through from the otherside of the aperture. As Sasuke did his little ass-kissing henge, also into the visage of their sensei, Naruto continued to study the phenomenon, and as it came time for his turn, he got a wicked grin on his face. "Next, Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto stalked forth with hands on hips, still sporting a broad grin, "Get ready," he began. "Shin-henge," Naruto yelled, and everyone watched as his body, seemed to liquify and grow and change, into a woman they all knew well. She is a fair-skinned woman, with brown eyes and straight blonde hair, which parts above her forehead, shoulder-length bangs framing her face, with the rest reaching her lower-back. There was a violet diamond shaped mark, clearly visible on her forehead, she was The Fifth Hokage, Tsunade Senju, a slender woman with a curvaceous frame, with above-average height and noticeably large breasts, and despite being in her early fifties, is widely regarded as the most beautiful kunoichi in the world.

Tsunade often wears a grass-green haori with the kanji for "gamble" (kake) on the back, inside a red circle. Underneath she wears a grey, kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad, dark bluish-grey obi that matches her pants. Her blouse is closed quite low, revealing her sizeable cleavage. She wears strappy, open-toed, black, high-heeled sandals, red nail-polish on her finger and toenails, soft pink lipstick, and nestled betwixt that heavenly cleavage, was a necklace. "Iruka-kun," came the Last Senju's voice, Naruto-as-Tsunade tried to make her voice sound seductive, asked, "why don't you come-up to my office sometime?"

The whole class gasped, they had seen Naruto's transformation before, but were unprepared for him to sound like her too. Iruka was just looking at the incarnation of his Hokage, he looked as if he really were about to say something, but at the last minute he turned his head down to look at the clipboard, and just said, a terse, "Good!" After returning to his natural form, Naruto walked back to his seat, looking directly at the face of his Hokage, and gave a small wave to her visage to let her know that he did indeed, see her. Her face, as she realized that and close the hole, was priceless.


	3. Light Studies

**Fact (Light and all other physical forces of nature in our world, function the same way as in Naruto's world)**

"On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," aka, The Special Theory of Relativity, by Albert Einstein, 1905

**Light Studies**

_Hokage's Eyes Only_

_By, Sandaime Hokage,_

_Sarutobi Hiruzen_

* * *

**Introduction**

The subject of this study, for security purposes, will be referred to as Kit, and shall otherwise not be named. The Hokage should know, who the term Kit, is referring to and therefore, should this report fall into unintended hands, then Kit's identity should be protected. The purpose of this study, is to learn as much as we can about a recent Bloodline Select, discovered here in Konoha. The Kekkei Tota, Kidoton, named by Kit, the discoverer, was the ability to employ Light itself.

At our current level of understanding, we know quite a bit about light. It is a form of electromagnetic radiation (EMR), and the typical human eye responds to certain wavelengths of EMR. In terms of frequency, this corresponds to a narrow bandwidth of frequencies. It has a color-shift range from Red to Violet, respective of wavelength and frequency, and is the fastest physical force we know of, moving at 299,338 meters per second (m/s), in a vacuum. Of course, a typical Byakugan has been recorded seeing into the near-Infrared (NIR) range.

This was the assumption of the range, Kit would be able to perceive when Kit asked myself and a close relative, since Kit was a minor at the time of experimentation, to aid Kit in studying and developing this kekkei tota. We were wrong. Upon awakening this jutsu, Kit also awakened a dojutsu, Kit calls it the Eye of Luminance, or Kidogan, what it does is allow Kit to perceive the entire electromagnetic spectrum – Radio waves, microwaves, Infrared, visible light, Ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma-rays – and associate energies, including the energy of motion. Kit cannot see chakra within the chakra coils, only once it's been discharged, nor may Kit, perceive nature energy. Kit can see the chakra system, in its entirety, including the tenketsu, and when they are open or not, as it is an organ system, within our bodies, and the eight-gates, and whether they have been opened recently. This dojutsu also gives Kit's vision, unparalleled telescopic and microscopic capabilities of anything within Line-of-Sight, using Radio Waves to Gamma Rays, Kit can judge distance to the micron, and the true molecular composition of any objects Kit perceives.

As stated previously, the Kidogan, can perceive sonic waves and other vibrations, this manifests as a form of synesthesia, tones and movement, always emit some form of vibration, as the electrons of even a thrown object pass through the gases of our atmosphere. The electrons of the atoms, that form the molecules of the atmosphere, and the object in flight, vibrate against each other and produce things like friction, momentum, and other things typically associated with objects in motion. Kit can perceive that with Kit's dojutsu, which looks like the Byakugan, but has a diamond shaped pupil that Kit can control on instinct. Kit's eyes collect the stimuli and somehow, Kit's tympanic membrane vibrates in harmony, which Kit's brain interprets sympathetically as sound, or vibrations along Kit's whisker-marks, which we know from previous interactions with Kit, are true sense organs, all of which moves at the speed of light, so Kit would have more than enough time to react in a combat situation, or be able to thwart an ambush situation, before the attackers even moved.

When the Kidogan is not activated, Kit's normal vision is still quite acute, and it is still able to perceive EMR from Far Ultraviolet (FUV) to Far Infrared (FIR) ranges. Kit's senses of hearing and touch have not been altered, they are still the same as they have been since his birth, the only difference is the sympathetic vibrations Kit receives, when Kit witnesses an event. It's the same mechanism in the brain, that allows one to flinch, when one sees a mirror image of one's hand get smashed with a hammer, when the person knows the image in the mirror is not even real.

* * *

**Week 1: The EM Field and Photokinetics**

When Kit asked me to help Kit learn more about Kit's kekkei tota, I'm not sorry to say that I jumped at the opportunity. To make sure Kit did not, overlook the previous abilities Kit learned, before we got into anything substantial on the topic at hand, I made Kit review the elemental manipulation, and basic abilities of all Kit's previous affinities. I also made Kit keep practicing Kit's chakra control. We did this every day for the entire month, as a sort of warm up, for the exercises we may have had to create as we went along.

Kit had come to me to help Kit study Kit's other jutsu, since they were unique only to Kit, before Kit's discovery. Luckily, Kit was no stranger to research, and not only does Kit enjoy it as much as I do, Kit is very good at it, and with Kit's clone jutsu, Kit can do it in a fraction of the time. Kit read up on the physics of light and wave mechanics, classical dynamics, and the concepts set forth by a monk, from Earth Country, titled, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," which has been proven correct, many times over.

For the last month, Kit, Kit's relative, and I, have practiced manipulating EMR, and have discovered some things about Kit's use of it. Kit has, what we call an electromagnetic force-field (EM Field) that Kit has subconsciously been using to protect Kit's life from another jutsu style, Kit is known to have. It has been what protects Kit from a certain jutsu, Kit has shown people in the past, these jutsu are unique to Kit and describing them, would run the risk of compromising Kit's identity. Kit has also manifested the ability to move physical objects, without touching them with Kit's flesh, it has made Kit reluctant to practice Kit's taijutsu, and other basic ninja skills, without being able to control or inadvertently harming Kit's opponent. Kit tried practicing taijutsu with help from Kit's clones, but found that even using minimal contact, Kit exerted more force than Kit intended, and inadvertently destroyed the clone, which though unintended, helped Kit discover the limits of Kit's clone's cohesion. Something that was not previously known. So, that was what we did, the first week of the month.

What was discovered, as Kit observed Kit's reflection in the mirror using the Eye of Luminance, was that Kit's chakra, had made its way into Kit's atoms and was exciting the energy coming from Kit's electrons. Kit had done this to a limited degree, while Kit was subconsciously employing Kit's EM Field, to protect Kit from Kit's other jutsu. Now that Kit had discovered Kit's Light Release, Kit's chakra was inundating Kit's atoms with EMR, which was causing the emission of photons, though luckily this was not causing Kit any harm. The increased energy from Kit's chakra was what was playing havoc with Kit's taijutsu, and other things.

Therefore, the first order of business was to get Kit to exert conscious control over Kit's EM Field. We started by seeing how much we can put into it, seeing how far, and how powerful we could make it first. So, we had Kit pour as much chakra as we could into Kit's atoms. The results were astonishing, Kit has an awesome amount of chakra as you know, and it grows every moment, the EM Field was able to reach a radius of fifty-yards, which surrounded the home of Kit and Kit's close relative. Of course, this was only relayed to me by Kit, because I could not see the field. It was beyond normal, human perception. Now, that we were able to get an idea of how powerful it could be, we had Kit back Kit's chakra off gradually. Kit did this until the EM Field was totally gone, Kit tested this by going up to a tree and giving it a good punch. The tree exhibited no more damage, according to Kit and Kit's close relative, than he could a few days ago.

Kit had Kit's clones, practicing Kit's control over the field for the rest of the week, and by the time Sunday rolled around, Kit had such instinctive control over the field, that it was as easy to activate, to whatever radius Kit wanted, up to the fifty-yard max radius, as it was to open and close Kit's eyes. By the end of week two, Kit could alter its strength, and opacity, by changing its energy level, and wavelength, respectively. More on that later in this report. Once Kit learned to control the EM Field, we discovered that Kit's brainwaves had harmonized with the EM-waves of the EM Field, which gave Kit an extra sensory perception. Even when Kit's dojutsu was deactivated, if Kit had Kit's field out, Kit could almost predict where a threat would come from, by week four Kit could fight against myself and Kit's close relative in taijutsu, and even throw kunai and shuriken at moving targets while Kit was blindfolded, as long as the EM Field was active.

Another discovery we found, sometimes when Kit wasn't concentrating an object would slam open or closed with greater force than Kit wanted. Photokinetics was the term we coined for a very interesting phenomenon, Kit discovered about photons, and the path of light. Whether it was throwing a kunai, or a punch, or opening a door, it seemed to combine with the direct force, Kit would normally use from Kit's flesh and move the object in question, with more force than Kit intended. Light is the fastest physical force in the universe, that we know about, it's speed is only thwarted when it meets interference, planets, stars, and other matter, its speed is hardly altered, unless it encounters heavy gravity. From that speed there is a force which can be imparted, and if a sufficient enough force is applied, it can cause a change in motion. This was another example of over excited electrons, applying more energy than was necessary, in this instance, touch repulsion. The force electrons bring to bear against one another, negative repelling negative charges, when they make physical contact.

This happened in a similar way to how the EM Field functioned, Kit's chakra was being channeled in the direction of repulsion, which added to the force normally coming from electrons. We again tried ramping up the chakra output, to see how powerful we could make the effect. We were in a small forest clearing, about ten-yards in radius, but Kit's force was so powerful, that it flattened a fifty-yard radius section of forest, as easily as one could flatten grass by walking on it. Kit's close relative and I had to erect an earthen dome, or we would have been flattened along with it, and Kit was sent twenty-feet into the air and came down hard, because Kit pushed the same force into the ground, as Kit did in other directions.

We repeated the process we used for Kit's EM Field, reducing the effects gradually, then learning to control how much force to use. At the end of the week, Kit was using Kit's photokinetics as instinctively, as Kit was using Kit's hands and feet to push matter away. By the end of week two, Kit could pull, by week three, Kit was manipulating all forms of matter with photokinetics, as easily as Kit could with Kit's hands, and by week four, Kit could do it without looking at the object in question, once Kit learned to couple Kit's EM Field sensory ability, with Kit's photokinetics, and his physical senses.

* * *

**Week 2: Breaking the Visible Spectrum, Spectra, and Wave Taming**

Visible Light, the medium, through which we as humans, perceive the world. It gives most of us, the vibrancy of color, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, these are the ways in which we may distinguish, one form of matter, energy, or a person, from all of the others, with which we share our lives. Yet, this type of EMR, is but a tiny sliver of the energy that bathes our existence, in beauty.

As we moved into the second week of our Light Release studies, we moved away from the broad topic of electromagnetic waves, and into the field of optics. Optics is the branch of physics, that studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter, and usually describes the behavior of visible, Ultraviolet, and Infrared light. As we moved on from the first week, our thoughts were, why don't we start by practicing control over the type of electromagnetism we thrive in every day? Kit, now included the Infrared (IR) and Ultraviolet (UV) thresholds, into that interaction.

We know electromagnetism, light, is represented as a particle, the photon, sometimes, but can also be moved in the form of waves. Meaning, there are times when electromagnetic radiation, will move as particles, and times when it'll move as a wave. Our first goal was to make a light source, out of anything, so we began where all Leaf ninja begin, with a leaf. Kit and all of Kit's clones, took a leaf from a tree, and began focusing the electromagnetic-chakra on the leaf in their hands. It took them hours, but results were rather quick, because Kit learned a valuable lesson last week, other than control of Kit's EM Field and photokinetics, one that usually takes a lifetime of trial and error to understand. Kit learned that mistakes, teach one as much as successes, so rather than dispel, only upon a success, Kit's clones, dispelled when they made an error too. That clone's mistake helped the remaining ones and Kit, learn from their mistakes and if they were about to make the same mistake, they immediately corrected from it and chose a different approach.

This process, despite the dispellations, allow Kit and the clones to finish in hours, what may have taken the whole session to complete. By the end of that time, six clones remained, and each of them, plus Kit, was holding an incandescent, glowing leaf in their hands, and feeling quite proud of themselves. Kit continued along that vein for the rest of the day, each object Kit turned into a light source, got progressively larger, until by the time I left for home, Kit could turn Kit's entire house into a light source, Kit even turned Kit into an incandescent light source.

The next day, once we reviewed everything, we'd learned so far, and practiced them, plus allowing Kit to get in some taijutsu and throwing practice. Kit hadn't been able to practice those for a week. Once finished with those, we decided to turn our attention, to the other aspect of the human, unless you're a Byakugan user, visible spectrum, color. We again began with a leaf, Kit and the clones, had it glowing in seconds, and once it was, they began the laborious process of color shifting. It didn't take as long to get it, as it did yesterday to make it glow, they just had to alter the wavelength, and energy level of the photons as they were emitted, they pushed it from red to violet quite easily, it reminded me of a musician going through their scales, towards the end, they even got a little exotic. They began cycling the leaves in their hands, all the way from the FUV to the FIR, then ending it by doing it to themselves, inadvertently creating a rudimentary invisibility jutsu.

At around dinnertime, Kit, Kit's relative, and me, were eating supper, Kit had finished first, and was lost in thought, as Kit stared at a leaf in Kit's hand. When asked, Kit said Kit was wondering what it was that caused Kit to see colors, even when the leaf was not glowing. I told Kit, it was the ambient light, in most cases the yellow light of the Sun, which is a roughly equal mixture of the entire spectrum of visible light. When this light encounters a surface, parts of the spectrum are absorbed by the object, while other wavelengths or parts of the spectrum are reflected or scattered. The new reflected light spectrum creates the appearance of a color, as it passes into our eyes. That seemed to light a gleam in Kit's eyes as Kit looked at the leaf, and concentrated, and before me and Kit's relative, the leaf began to change color. At first, it was a slow process, then gradually, one section of the leaf began to change color, going from red, to orange, then Kit's progress became easier, and the leaf began flashing through the color spectrum. Even the Infrared and Ultraviolet forms of light, Kit could now see unaided, put in an appearance.

To say, I was intrigued by this spectacle, would do nothing to tell you about how I was truly feeling, and I asked how Kit was doing this and Kit told me. Kit was altering certain properties of the wave, by allowing the photon to keep its energy, but altering the wave's length and frequency. Kit called it, Breaking the Visible Spectrum, or Spectrum Breaking, and it was an idea Kit had for Kit's first ninjutsu, once we finished learning as much as we could, before his Genin Exam. As Kit continued to cycle the visible spectrum, Kit had another epiphany, color and appearance, were masks, barriers one put on to make themselves feel better, and lie to themselves. That week, Kit coined a new term Kit would use to associate with those characteristics, Kit from then on called them, spectra and façade.

We continued along that vein, for the rest of the week, Kit learned Kit could alter the flow of light waves around Kit and other objects, which essentially could alter the observers perception of where the object was located. It took the principle of Geometrical Optics and turned it into a tool for the wielder. We thought we'd found the perfect invisibility method, when Kit pushed every photon of EMR Kit could see away from Kit and the other object, but it seemed Kit would be essentially blind if Kit used it, not that it would hinder Kit too much, with Kit's fox senses, and now Kit's EM-Field when Kit used it. This could make for a perfect trap, and a way to assassinate somebody by tricking them into a harmful situation. Kit has given a name to this technique also, it is called, Wave Taming, because it is doing exactly what its name implies, conquering light waves.

Besides that, Kit could actually create physical illusions for an opponent, tricking their perceptions, and at its ultimate expression, delay when the light photons reach the eye. This could possibly render all dojutsu, at least the Byakugan, and maybe the Sharingan ineffective. It is imperative that the clans who own those dojutsu, never read this, or they'll try to assassinate Kit.

* * *

**Week 3: The Unseen Spectrum**

For this next section, Kit had to begin working with Kit's dojutsu, this allowed Kit to perceive all EMR and vibrational waves. At this point, everything I am relaying to you, Tsunade, was gathered from secondhand information, provided by Kit. Anything Kit didn't tell me, or Kit's relative, I'm afraid there is very little we may do to get Kit to talk, because as you know, even the Hokage doesn't have the power to command the secrets of our ninja's techniques. It would violate the charter set forth by the Shodai, and Kit's Fire Daimyo, about the rights ninja have to their own techniques.

That being said, here is the information Kit gave to me, and what I was able to discern from my own observations. The electromagnetic radiation, Kit controls in this section are Radio Waves, Microwaves, X-rays, and Gamma-rays, all invisible to the naked eye, unless aided by a dojutsu, like the Kidogan. Despite what I wrote earlier, it is unknown whether the Sharingan, or the Byakugan, can see into this wavelength, as there are very few ways to test those capabilities. Radio Waves are the least energetic form of EMR, that we no about, it also has the largest wavelength, and lowest frequency bandwidth. It also has the least harmful effects, seems able to move through all forms of matter, from solids to plasmas, and can propagate overland, or into the sky. Kit, in addition to seeing them with the Kidogan, can feel them, and all forms of EMR, really, when they enter Kit's body, Kit says they feel like a physical sensation, according to Kit: Radio Waves feel ticklish, Microwaves feel like fingers moving over Kit's body, Infrared to UV feels like a warm hug, while X-rays and Gamma Rays make the hair on the back of Kit's neck stand-up, and a warm breeze crossing over Kit's skin, respectively, though only when using the Eye of Luminance.

Radio waves and microwaves, seem to have no direct action capabilities, they seem to be more for communication, and providing sensory data to Kit than aggressive tendencies. When Kit's EM Field is out, even while remaining within Kit's body, if Kit is employing the Kidogan, the radio waves and microwaves give Kit an extremely accurate picture of Kit's surroundings.

Microwaves are more powerful than Radio Waves, but have a shorter wavelength, and higher frequency. Kit said, it was better against direct threats than Radio Waves. Which could probably be used as an espionage tool, because with the Visible Light Breaking technique, Kit could convert the Radio Waves to Visible Spectra (Light) frequencies. That could allow Kit to 'see,' others from a great distance and know what they were saying, thanks to Kit's synesthesia.

As you know, Jiraiya was in the village during this time, and he was up to his usual antics, peeping on women at the hot springs, he ended up in the hospital if I recall, you put him there, after all. This is when, we discovered that the reverse of Kit's techniques were possible. Not only may Kit receive data with EMR, Kit can transmit data as well, and affect EM-waves from a distance, Kit demonstrated this technique, though I only learned about it as Kit was doing it, and of course the results, when I visited Jiraiya in the hospital. You were there too, Hokage-dono, if I recall, nursing our incorrigible teammate, my student, back to health after the episode.

Here's what Kit did to cause that event to happen. Kit, using his Radio-sensor, found Jiraiya in his usual spot, overlooking the hot springs, peering into the female side through a telescope, and Kit as you know hates perverts, got angry, but took this as an opportune time to practice transforming one form of electromagnetism into another. Kit combined Wave Taming with Spectrum Breaking, Kit refracted the Visible Light reflecting from the men's side of the Springs, directly into my student's viewing tool, so the only images my wayward student received were images of naked men. He of course, thought he was under a genjutsu, and broke it, nothing happened because it wasn't his chakra network being affected by Kit's chakra, it was his very own eyes betraying him, at the same time, Kit made sure every photon that reflected from the telescope's lens went straight into the women's side of the springs, as visible light, which you saw, and it caused you to beat the crap out of my student. I found it hard to deem which beating from you was worse, this one, or the one you gave him for peeping on you when you were still a Genin, both nearly killed him if I recall? Kit's purpose was not to send Jiraiya to the hospital, just to make the women in the female side aware of his presence. Kit deemed what actually happened a better result.

You are likely wondering, why I included this aside in this report, when though humorous, it would be irrelevant in most people's eyes, that's because, Kit did all of this from Kit's place of residence using Radio Waves and Microwaves as mediums for altering the light properties, not within Kit's Line-of-Sight. The distance from Kit's dwelling to the hot springs is in excess of a mile from Kit's home, and Kit was able, to expertly move the light in that area, enough to confound one of the best shinobi, Konohagakure ever produced, even you, Tsunade-kun, cannot deny Jiraiya-san's skills and intelligence.

So getting back on track, Microwaves, do **not** reach as far, as Radio Waves, and only seem to be good for tracking something that's within Kit's Line of Sight. No, it's not the EMR in this instance, which Kit is already so good at utilizing that is my focus for this part of our study, but when Kit uses the Kidogan to perceive Microwaves, Kit's brain, Kit's whole nervous system becomes supercharged. Kit says, it feels like everything is slowed-down, as if the world is moving in slow motion, even sounds seem to take longer to reach Kit in this state than before. And, it's in this state that Kit says Kit can see soundwaves, as they ripple through the atmosphere, Kit's other senses haven't changed, Kit can't suddenly hear frequencies Kit couldn't before discovering Kidoton. My supposition is Kit's nerves, when deploying Kit's Kidogan, change Kit's physiology slightly, evolving Kit's body and allowing Kit's nerves to fire at, or very close to the speed of light.

This will require further investigation, from a medical standpoint to verify, but that's neither here nor there. What makes this event worth mentioning, is Kit has observed soundwaves being disrupted, or at least disturbed, when Kit employs microwaves. Kit doesn't know if it will have any practical applications, Kit decided to shelve experimentation until after graduation.

Now, we leave the low energy realm of the electromagnetic spectrum, and journey into the high energy kingdom of light. Unlike in all previous experiments for this study, Kit had to fully deploy Kit's EM Field, while myself and Kit's relative, stayed outside to prevent radiation sickness. While Kit remained within the dome, Kit took a leaf, as Kit did in previous experiments, then looked and felt for the electrons in the molecular bonds with his chakra. Kit from a previous jutsu-style was already an expert, in manipulating ions, and exciting electrons. It didn't take long for Kit to have a steady stream of X-rays, from the air itself, Kit held the energy still for just a moment, then Kit concentrated and shaped the invisible knife, the way Kit did, when Kit first learned to use Wind and sent it through the Leaf. The X-rays, severed the molecular bonds of the leaf, and it was sliced in half, just like when Kit completed the Leaf cutting exercise when Kit learned Wind. Unlike Wind however, Kit couldn't just let the energy go, it was ionizing radiation, it could damage the ecosystem if it was left unchecked, so Kit, not knowing anything else to do, sent the x-rays into the ionosphere, by increasing their wavelength to Radio Wavelengths

Kit repeated Kit's actions with Gamma Rays, this time exciting the Gamma particles in the atomic nuclei, enough to release gamma-ray photons without causing fission or early decay, then, Kit repracticed the leaf cutting exercise, and disposed of it the same way. That method was inefficient, if Kit was in combat, Kit wouldn't have time to send it into the upper atmosphere, but that was solved when we learned, that Kit's body was naturally immune to ionizing radiation. So, kit learned to absorb X-ray and Gamma-ray photons, which led to an outstanding discovery, when some of the chakra, Kit used to perform these activities, was returned to Kit's chakra reserves. Kit can recycle part of Kit's chakra, the same way Kit can when Kit's clones dispel, returning any unused chakra to their creator.

As for being able to see through matter, Kit merely extended Kit's Spectrum Breaking technique, to the entire EM-spectrum. Kit converts the Radio Waves and microwaves to x or gamma-rays as they reflect into Kit's eyes, and Kit sees inside just fine.

* * *

**Conclusion**

The fourth week, didn't bring forth any new revelations, it was just spent, making everything we did for the last three weeks instinctive to Kit. We remonstrated the imperative to keep everything we learned and practiced here private, and Kit understood why quite well, it seems as if the last few weeks have taught Kit some wisdom. Most of that fourth week was also spent practicing Kit's other skills. The ones Kit would need to become a Genin, and I must say, speaking as a former sensei myself, I know Kit is ready. You needn't worry Hokage-sama, I never told, or informed, Kit of anything I haven't told any of my sons when they took the Genin Exam, I didn't give Kit any more advice than I would give Konohamaru, when it becomes time for Kit to become a Genin. One other piece of information you may have become aware of the first day, Kit learned about Kidoton. Kit can feel it when you use the crystal ball jutsu, and can see you through it as well, so word of advice, don't use that jutsu to when Kit's around or Kit may give you away, with or without meaning to, so be cautious when using that jutsu, it is one of most closely guarded secrets of the Hokage office.

* * *

_**If there are any of my readers who have not figured it out, Kit is Naruto. This chapter is as much about his Kekkei Tota as this author wanted to include, told from the perspective of Hiruzen Sarutobi.**_


	4. Rosette no Konoha

[Author's Note: I have gone back and changed Naruto's appearance, in this story, to his canon appearance.]

**Rosette of the Leaf**

_Graduation & Revelations_

**Be Mindful**

It was the day, Naruto had been waiting for since he was five, his Genin Graduation Exam. He woke up that day, the Monday after he, Jiji, and Aunt Yugao finally, completed the study into his Kidoton. Naruto woke up early and completed his morning hygiene rituals, before heading into the kitchen to fix his breakfast. He took his time eating today, he just wanted to relax and have faith in his training. He had been through the exam before of course, and knew what to expect, the steps of the exam would not change and if he tensed-up, he might choke.

So, Naruto made himself pay attention to the steps he took to make his food, watched his steps as he sat at the table, cherished every bite of his meal, and made sure to chew thoroughly before swallowing. Naruto kept conscious of all his movements, something he learned from monks that came through Konoha, every once in a while, to help keep his mind off things he did not want to think about.

Naruto checked his EM-Field to make sure it was under his control, and made sure his electrons, were only putting out their natural touch repulsion charge. Which had not been a problem for a whole month, he could now move anything with his photokinetics, well anything five-times his body mass, or lower, and had such fine control over it too. Naruto did two things at night before he went to bed, one was obvious; he used his photokinetics to practice lifting a set of weights, not just up and down, but he had them floating in orbit around his head; the other thing, would be considered strange, if anybody ever saw it happening, Naruto crocheted. It was perfect for dexterity training, and it was very good for hand and eye coordination, which was why he took it up as a hobby, when he was ten. He would not say he was good at it, because only his Aunt knew he did it, but he would say he is advanced for somebody with only two years of experience at it. When he began training to control his photokinetics, he decided that crocheting would help him practice fine motor control, so once he got control over it, he decided to start practicing basic knitting again, and it didn't take him long to get his photokinetic dexterity, to be equal to his current skill level with yarn. His physical person would practice doing one project, while his pk would practice another project, and holding the yarn for both of them, which allowed him to practice multitasking too. Content that his Light release was under his control, he had finished breakfast, and continued to go about his normal routine.

* * *

_Genin Graduation Exam _

**The Art of Deception**

Naruto sat in his class, waiting to leave to go outside, and conduct the practical portion of the Genin Graduation Exam. They had just completed the Academics Section of the Exam, which was equivalent to any average, secondary school, education, attended by civilians in other parts of Konoha. Konoha shinobi and kunoichi, would never be accused of ignorance, that's for sure. Naruto knows he aced this thing, so that was not his concern, now that he would become a Genin for sure, he began to implement his plan for the humility of the Uchiha.

Naruto would do nothing to the Uchiha, he would not have to, he would simply stop holding back. Naruto knew the class standings, and except for the Nara; performing exactly enough to remain in the middle; all of the class was performing precisely within their talents. He was tied for second, with Sakura Haruno, in class average, all of which counted for nothing. In the Genin Exam, each student was given a clean slate, and the rankings would be determined without worrying about the past. None of the students besides him, a twice veteran of the exam, knew that, and it was only by vowing not to inform the other candidates, not even Kiba, that allowed him to be able to take the class again, and again. The brass wanted the students to feel the pinch of the past, it added another unknown test to the Exam, a stress-test. They wanted to see how the prospective ninja, could handle the mild tension of the Genin test, if they could not handle stress as light as this, they should never be ninja.

Finally, the written exam ended, and the prospective genin stood up and walked out to the Confidence Course, it was a separate building set-up by the wife of the Shodaime, Mito Uzumaki, using fuinjutsu. This was where the throwing ability of each student would be assessed. Yet, instead of a range of static targets at varying degrees of distance, the students had to make their throws while moving through an obstacle course, and they made their throws against human analogues, with the vital targets clearly marked. Not only that, each student was only allowed ten shuriken, and ten kunai, and hitting a vital target was worth two-points, hitting adjacent to the vital targets was worth a single-point, just hitting the dummy was worth half-a-point, not hitting it, zero. A perfect score was 40 points in five minutes, and you had to get a minimum of 80% just to pass, for every minute under five, four points was added to your score, and for every minute over, four was subtracted. The Course was mutable, to prevent people from telling others the Course layout, it changed with every person. It was totally random, the thrower just stepped up to the entrance of the Course, said his or her name, and the seal-work devised a scenario, meant to test that person. Naruto had taken the Course, twice already, and it had been different both times he took it.

The class went through in alphabetical order, so far, most of the class had completed the course, and – almost – everybody, was staying true to form. What has become clear to Naruto, is he was not the only one who has been hiding their true potential. Sakura it seemed had hidden her true talents, like Naruto and was even able to beat out Sasuke with her performance, although Hinata still had the highest score of the class so far, a 48. Another odd thing about Sakura, she had been much nicer to Naruto today than normal, even greeting him back, when he told her good morning, and when he complimented on her throwing prowess, she blushed and demurred before thanking him.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Iruka said in his monotone voice, "please proceed," cutting into the blonde's thoughts.

Naruto nodded, and went to stand in front of the entrance, and spoke out loud, "Uzumaki Naruto, 13, requesting entrance." There was a hiss as the door slid open to reveal a room, fairly large, but sectioned along the walls, ceiling, and floor, in a black-and-yellow grid-like pattern. Naruto stepped inside, and the door closed behind him, it was dark for a moment, then lights flickered on and an NOUT (Ninja Operations in Urban Terrain) setting appeared before him. This looked very much like Keishi-Toshi, the capital city of Hi no Kuni, with modern and contemporary architectural concepts, mixed with more traditional buildings. _Hm, this is certainly different,_ he mused, _the first time I did this it gave me a traditional forest setting, the time after that I was in a feudal lord's castle. This will definitely give me a challenge._

Naruto began walking cautiously, but kept to one side of the street, to avoid being spotted. His fox senses and his now normal vision, without the Eye of Luminance, were at peak awareness, then on the other side of the street a couple of dummies popped out through a door, and before they had settled into position two of his shuriken had embedded themselves into the necks of both. Naruto took off in a dash as he felt one begin to move with the shifting of the air currents, it came from a house to Naruto's right side, he let fly before it had even appeared, and his kunai was buried in its chest in an instant. A window opened on an upper-floor of the building across the street from the Uzumaki boy, and he sent another kunai into its throat, with enough force, that it pierced through the throat and into the spinal column. The throat was a secondary target, and would have gotten Naruto a single point, if it had not pierced so deep that it transected the spinal column from the front. Another dummy popped up right in front of Naruto, about twenty-yards, and Naruto sent a star flying into its chest, it found its way into the chest cavity, piercing the heart and lungs – if it had been a living, breathing person before, it would have become a hunk of meat now.

Outside the building, the other students watch Naruto move in awe, even the teachers despite hating him, could not begrudge the Demon-brat its skill, they have only seen a few Chunin move as efficiently, and decisively as it. Sasuke was sweating, he knew that he would not have gained the Rookie-of-the-Year, or even second place after Sakura's performance, he could not believe he had miscalculated so badly with his classmates. Sakura-san had certainly never shown much skill in the past, but had apparently been hiding her skill, beneath the mask of a fan-girl. Naruto had never really hidden his skills, he displayed his ninjutsu prowess quite often, but always lost to him in taijutsu, and throwing. That is when it hit him, _it's been staring at me this whole time, he was holding back with the things he lost to me in_, then looking at the monitor as the blonde made his final throw and ended his session with a score of 48.15. _If this is what he can do in throwing, what about the Taijutsu Section_, Sasuke's self-assurance, already forming cracks because of Sakura's performance, now begins to crumble, as he watched the other genin hopeful, exit the Confidence Course?

**Humility Among the Flowers**

Sakura watched from the kunoichi ring, as Inuzuka Kiba, lost to Uchiha Sasuke, it was the semi-finals of the Taijutsu, Gender Specific, Tournament of the Genin Graduation Exam. The Genin Exam was the only time in ninja life, where boys and girls were segregated, kunoichi fight kunoichi, shinobi fight shinobi, and that was because most of the boys were still under the notion that men are not supposed to hit women. That way of thinking was usually knocked out of them, most of the time by their very own female teammates. Once a female dons her headband with forehead protector, she becomes more than a woman, she becomes a kunoichi, a fellow warrior as capable of doling out death as any warrior, most shinobi learn that lesson eventually. Hopefully they did not learn it too late, because more than one enemy kunoichi has used that reticence to kill, said male.

Kiba was finally knocked out cold, but it had not been a one-sided victory, the scratch down the left cheek, the split lip, two already blackening eyes, one partially closed, gave mute testimony that Sasuke's victory was hard won. If that was not enough, the Uchiha prince was clutching at his ribs, and seemed to list to the left, as he made his way to the medic tent, to receive treatment for his injuries.

Sakura standing in the kunoichi ring, turned her attention back to her opponent, she was going to place second in the kunoichi Genin Exam, Sakura was confident in her martial arts power, her unofficial sensei, said she was as good as any kunoichi, at low Chunin levels. Sakura was confident in her fighting skills, but she was not blind, she knew herself, and knew she was not suited for prolonged fights using taijutsu only. She was confident, but she knew that one other kunoichi in her class, was in a class by herself in taijutsu, and that was Hinata Hyūga. Sakura has watched the girl practice enough times to see that for herself, and despite the heiress's soft-spoken, gentle nature, when it came to her training, she was just as serious as any other kunoichi in combat.

"Haruno-san," Iruka called, "Hyūga-san," the two combatants, stepped onto the arena, "please, bow to your instructor," they complied by bowing to him, "face each other, and bow." While Sakura was aware of her limits, that did not mean she would not strive to push those limits, beyond all boundaries. When Sakura raised her jade-green eyes, there was steel behind them, "Ready," Umino rasped, and Sakura began swaying, almost bonelessly, her body from her ankles to her neck, undulated, sensually. While her body moved, her head remained rock-still, and her feet remained rooted as if she were a tree, with her limbs billowing in the wind. Sakura's footwork was deceptive, because the way her body shifted, made her appear to be about to move in one direction, while her feet moved it in an entirely different direction.

Hinata settled into the Jūken fist's utility stance, side on to the opponent, one palm straight out, fingers splayed, the other at an off angle to the first, slightly bent, hand configured into a crane's beak pointing to the ground. The lower body aligned with torso, front knee bent, until only the toes of the front foot, bear any weight, the back leg takes most of the weight, and the back foot is flush on the floor, directly behind the front foot, back foot is at an angle. Both Kunoichi nodded their readiness to begin, and Iruka, chopped his hand vertically through the air between them, and bellowed, "HAJIME," then stepped out of the way!

Immediately they began circling around the arena, never taking their eyes off each other, and keeping their defenses up like a fort. Sakura slowly, incrementally reduces her circling, and the gap between them shrinks. Sakura goes into more orbiting, when her deceptive footwork and disorienting body movement, come in handy, as she appears to go on circling, she performs a reverse spin, which brings her into alignment with Hinata's flank. Sakura throws a phoenix eye fist, right into the Hyūga's kidney. If Hinata was fooled by the deception, she did not show it, as she immediately moved the target of the attack away from the punch, and her arm swept down to parry Sakura's natural weapon.

Hinata continued her motion, bringing her other arm in for a palm-strike at the rosette's (pink hair) sternum. Sakura's body shifted out of the way, as if her body were truly without bones, or at least not the human skeletal frame, as the arm which was parried by the violette (purple hair), rose up, and in a loose overhand grab at the heiress's wrist, trapped her arm, and delivered a piercing nerve strike to the funny-bone, numbing the Hyūga's forearm. Hinata pushed herself away from her rosette classmate, to get some distance, and studied her opponent.

These kunoichi had two things in common, they were both on the outs with their respective, clan and parents. Hinata because of her stubborn refusal to conform to the Hyūga clan nindō. Hinata was not going to allow herself to be bound by Hyūga traditions, she did not practice the Jūken, the way the clan elders decided it should be practiced, she practiced a different style, called the Jūhou, which was more suited to her body type. The Elders did not really have a problem with that, however, it was a legitimate sister-style to the Jūken, and since it was taught to her by her mother, they felt it still reflected the true spirit of the Hyūga clan. What they took exception to is her insistence on experimentation, using other chakra besides the generic non-elemental variety that every other honorable Hyūga uses. She used her elemental Fire chakra in her attacks, which to their befuddlement, worked better than the baseline chakra. That however was just their issues regarding fighting-style and was just their way of sniping at her, it was her attitude in public they had the real issues with, in their estimation walking around with a stick up their arse (Hinata's words not theirs), was how a true Hyūga was supposed to act. Hyūga in their estimation, were better than everybody else, and everybody should be aware of it. Hinata refused to act that way, so in their opinion she was a disgrace to the clan.

Sakura, when she told her parents she wanted to be a kunoichi, saw them look upon her with disgust. It was like, she had told them she wanted to work in a brothel when she grew up. The traditional attitude about kunoichi, was that they could only use their sex to be effective, and despite the rise of modern kunoichi like, Tsunade of the Sanin, their Hokage and the likes of Kushina Uzumaki, the traditional view of kunoichi was still in the minds of most civilians, just a step above a prostitute. There was nothing they could do to dissuade Sakura from the path she chose, they let her start at the Academy, and her mom, at least, thought it would be a good opportunity for their family, to get her married into a good ninja clan. Sakura was excited on her first day of school, but her parents seemed to have blinders on about what a kunoichi did as a ninja. They did not allow her to train her taijutsu or throwing abilities at home, saying a good girl does not get into fights. They told her that if she ever found herself in such dire situations, to run away, or just wait to be rescued by her male ninja teammates. So, Sakura took to sneaking out at night to practice, which when she was ten, allowed her to meet her unofficial sensei, the one who taught her that being a true kunoichi meant she was a warrior, not a whore. Her sensei, another kunoichi, taught Sakura, her Hebi-style taijutsu, which since it's movements when done properly look like a dance, would fool Sakura's parents, who definitely would not know any better. Sakura told them it was traditional at school for kunoichi to learn to dance, to entice men. That seemed to appease her parent's narrow-view of the world and allowed Sakura to grow strong right under their noses.

Another thing, Sakura and Hinata had in common, though only one of them knew it, they both had a crush on the same shinobi. There was a reason Sakura wanted to be a kunoichi and go to the Academy, when she was six, she was attacked by some bullies in the park, they seemed to take pleasure in seeing the fearful expression on her face as they pushed her around between them. They finally worked-up the nerve to actually hit her, when one of them reared back his fist, about to throw, and Sakura though afraid, refused to cower, and was ready to take the hit on the face. The fist was stopped by another hand catching it, they all looked and there was Naruto, though she did not know it at the time. Naruto then kicked the crap out of those boys, it seems this was the second time they had pulled this bullying crap, and he had let them off with a warning. **[Naruto-kun, fucked those boys up],** inner Sakura purred, it seems they ended up in the hospital, and were remanded to juvenile jail upon release.

Sakura never saw Naruto again, until six-months ago, when he was placed in her class. She talked to him after school and thanked him for that time in the park, and it was at this time that her mother walked into school to get her. Mebuki Haruno was not pleased that her daughter was talking to the Demon, and when they got home, both of her parents gave her an ultimatum, if they ever saw her speaking to the demon again, they would pull her out of the Academy and make her go to a 'real' school. And because, she was a minor until she graduated, and got her headband, they could do it. Therefore, in order to appease them, she began to be mean to Naruto, they had heard her calling him 'baka' a time or two, and thought she was following their rules. What she was doing, at the suggestion of her sensei, whom had become like a sister to Sakura, was deceiving them, in her mind whenever she said, "Naruto-baka," she was really calling him, _Naruto-kun._ Sakura's grades at school were also a deception, except for Academics, she made sure to maintain average grades in the other skills on her report card, it was something about the grades not really mattering for the Exam, though sensei did not elaborate.

The bout between the ladies was heating up, the Jūhou was a more fluid like style than the Jūken, and Sakura's movements from the Hebi-style, seemed to be an almost mirror of the former. It was not just the styles that were a mirror reflection, the kunoichi were almost flowing together, but if there is one thing the Jūhou had over the Hebi, was its decisive power. While they were both delivering solid blows to each other, and had the lacerations and contusions to prove it, Hebi lacked the power to make any real, lasting damage. Jūhou, however, did, and the blows from Hinata's palm-strikes, spear-hands, and knife-hands, were definitely taking their toll. Sakura however, refused to give up, unless Hinata made her. And so, Hinata and Sakura were exchanging a particularly vicious set of blows, Sakura's movements were sluggish, Hinata's only slightly less so, Sakura thrust her palms forward into the Hyūga's chest, when a wide sweep of Hinata's palms parried Sakura's own arms so hard, she overbalanced, and would have corrected if Hinata had not sent a sweep behind her legs. Sakura still would have recovered however, when with a sudden adrenaline rush, Hinata slammed a downward palm into Sakura's sternum, who was still in the process of falling. Sakura slammed into the ground, hard, and as her melon bounced off the ground she was in dreamland.

Iruka declared, the winner was, "Hyūga Hinata," upon hearing that, Hinata's legs gave out on her and she fell to her knees, next to the unconscious rosette. Hinata was looking at the dead to the world Kunoichi in amazement, "_my Kami,_" she whispered, "_not even Neji-nii, has ever given me this much trouble in a taijutsu bout before._" Then leaning closer, whispered to the knocked-out girl, "_I hope, Hokage-sama, sees fit to put us on the same team, Sakura-san,_" she suddenly fell over to lay on Sakura's chest, and the violette girl, whispered before joining the rosette girl in sleep, "_I look forward to testing each other again._"

Iruka looked over at the shinobi ring, to see the crumpled form of Uchiha Sasuke at the feet of Uzumaki Naruto, and upon looking at his partner, who nodded, _we have to change a few things around, we won't be able to use the Demon brat after all,_ declared Hinata and Naruto winners of their respective genders in taijutsu.

**The Unavoidable**

It was the end of the Genin Graduation Exam, in all, twenty-seven candidates would graduate from this class. They had not yet been assigned Teams, and it would be one week before they would be announced. At long last, the class was dismissed until the 15th of the month, next week, the class dispersed. As soon as it was dismissed, Naruto went as fast as he could to the license registration office and got his official Ninja license, which made him an adult in the eyes of every country on the map. Naruto, his headband in place over his brow, and license in a special seal all ninja have so they can keep it on them at all times, decides to head home, and had just made it out the door of the bureaucratic office, when he spotted Sakura sitting on a bench, he had actually seen her in there too. She was ahead of Naruto in another line. Naruto was about to walk past without speaking to her, when, "Naruto-kun, wait up, please?" Naruto's eyes went wide with surprise, it was not the words which halted him, it was who said them, he turned around to stare into the jade-green eyes of Sakura Haruno.

"Yes, Sakura-san," he asked, in curiosity?

Sakura took a heavy breath and let it out slowly, "First, I want to tell you that I'm sorry, for the way I've treated you, after the first day you were in the class, and after I had just thanked you for stepping in and helping me when I was six."

If Naruto was surprised at her words before, he was dumbfounded at her words now, "That's okay, Sakura-san," he granted, "I forgive you, and you wouldn't be the first person to treat me bad after meeting me, it's happened before."

"No, it's not okay, and I didn't apologize to you to have you forgive me," Sakura snapped, "not until I have explain…"

"Musume (Daughter)," came the whip-crack of a stern voice, they jerked their head to the sound and just striding up the street was a blonde woman, with the same shade of green-eyes as her daughter's, and it was, the same angry expression he had seen on Sakura's face, a time or two! "What did, your father and I tell you would happen if we caught you fraternizing with this… this _boy_ again," the woman ranted which ended in a shriek?

Sakura has been waiting for this, and sent a discreet hand signal to the woman, watching from the tree across the street from her. She looked side-long at the blonde boy, _this could hit two targets with one kunai,_ she thought, **[This is gonna be fucking epic],** Inner Sakura snarled! "You said, you'd remove me from school and send me to a 'real' school, if you caught me talking to Naruto-kun again," she said casually, nonchalantly.

"That's right," the older woman shrieked, "I'll never know how we let you talk us into letting you become a kunoichi in the first place," she ranted, obviously missing the Hidden Leaf headband, Sakura now wore as a hair band, until she could get to a salon and style it to something a kunoichi would wear. She had only grown it long because, her dad thought girls were more appealing to men, if they had long hair. Mebuki went to grab Sakura, "now come on, we're getting you away from him, and no more of this ninja nonsense, it's not something a proper young lady should be aspiring to become in the first place." The older woman, tried to force the kunoichi to move, but other than her shoulder moving, Sakura did not budge.

"Please, take your hands from my person, Mebuki Haruno-san," Sakura's voice was cold, and emotionless, "before I have you arrested for assault."

Sakura's mother was shocked that her daughter would speak to her in such a smart tone, what's more, it was the mature tone of an adult. She grew stern again still not putting the clues together, "don't you take that tone of voice with me, young lady," and went to slap Sakura, but the young kunoichi easily dodged the attack.

Still in a calm voice, the rosette kunoichi, said in a firm tone of voice, "before you go too far, Haruno-san, I must remind you of the consequences of trying to assault a ninja of Konoha, in Konoha," Sakura thumb-pointed at the hitai-ate resting in her hair. "If you haven't noticed the date, today was graduation, I've told you all about it for the last month. I even marked it on the calendar in the living room," she reminded her mother, "today was the Genin Graduation Exam, and I did quite well, if I do say so myself."

"You did better than that, Sakura-san," Naruto scoffed, coming into the conversation, "you made the top five of the entire class, only Hinata Hyūga and myself outperformed you, and got better scores than you. You even out did, Sasuke Uchiha, in every category," he added, then looked at the Haruno matriarch, "your daughter is a force to be reckoned with, ma'am, and I would be honored to spar with her any day of the week. She would be a welcome addition on my team, should our esteemed Hokage, place her there," Naruto complimented, and Sakura's face was as pink as her hair, her smile was as bright as the sun, and even managed to look shy while doing it.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun," she gushed.

"Sakura," Mebuki's voice brought their attention back to her, "how could you do that, to the man you're trying to convince to marry you? Men don't want girls who are better than them, women are supposed to remain subservient to their men!"

"Number one: I never liked Sasuke like that, I only did that to disguise my true feelings…" she trailed off while casting a glance at the blonde shinobi, who was looking at her mother like she had grown two heads, before turning her gaze back to her mother, before he turned to her, "for someone else. I was never interested in him," she confirmed, "and, number two: if I have to deliberately lose to somebody to convince them to marry me, then he's not somebody I want to be married to," she shook her head. "Seriously, how fragile is the male ego that I would have to throw a contest, just to keep his interest in me?"

Naruto snapped his head around in slight pique, "hey, it's not all of us, don't lump me in with whatever men she's talking about, that need a woman to be subservient to them, even lose to them to make themselves feel better. Besides," he said, turning back to Haruno-san, "why would he need to be 'convinced' to marry Sakura in the first place, she's got everything a man could want in a woman. Beauty, body, brains," with every compliment Sakura's blush grew deeper, "beauty that can stop even the best of men from thinking straight, even when she's angry, a body that packs more power in it than the Fourth's Rasengan, and brains, which are housed in an especially cute forehead, any man would be blessed to be given, even the time of day by Sakura, and should thank Kami-sama for being so blessed. And if they can't, they're either worthless, old, or they don't like women," Naruto concluded.

The two women in the lane with Naruto, just stood there gaping at him, **[I love him],** Inner Sakura said with lust in her voice, with which Sakura could not disagree. She got back to the matter at hand, "the fact of the matter is, Haruno-san," Sakura stated getting her mother's attention, "today was my Genin Graduation, and I passed," Sakura again pointed to her headband, "which according to international law, makes me legally an adult," she finished. "So, keep your hands off me, unless I give you permission," Sakura snapped out at her mother!

Taken aback by Sakura's words, Mebuki snapped back, "as long as you live under our roof, young lady, you'll abide by our rules, and I demand you stop this nonsense about being an adult. You're only twelve, you need to be eighteen to be considered an adult."

"She's right, ma'am," Naruto spoke again, "these were laws established by the Emperor of the Taiyō Empire, because ninja of any age can be sent into a battle, then all ninja, shinobi and kunoichi alike are looked upon as adults. We can get married, though Konoha military law requires us to be Chunin when we get married, we can live as husband and wife, even bring forth children, though only the most irresponsible Genin would do that. All of us are taught a contraceptive ninjutsu, to prevent accidental children. We can own property and run a business, though we must still conform to all other laws regarding these examples, except age restrictions of course."

"The point I'm trying to make, mother," Sakura concluded, "is now that I'm an adult, I am no longer required to live, as you put it, under your roof, and may therefore reside anywhere I can afford."

"No," Mebuki quivered as she began to cry, "you can't, you can't leave, we won't let you!"

"There is nothing you can do to prevent it," Sakura said softly, "nothing legal anyway, and as for letting me, you see over the past month as the graduation exam drew closer, I've been secretly moving my clothes and personal items out of your house. I've found my own place to live, and as soon as I begin earning money as a ninja, I'll be able to help with rent at my new place."

Mebuki suddenly, looked like she had aged twenty-years, since she had stood here, and in a small voice asked, "but where will you live, who will you live with?"

"With me," came a voice from behind them, and Mebuki jerked her head in the direction of the sound. Only Sakura's mother was surprised, Sakura had known she was there, and Naruto had felt a presence within the trees, the person standing there was a fairly tall woman with a slender frame. She has light brown, pupil-less eyes, she is a violette, and keeps her hair styled in a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. She regularly wears a fitted mesh body suit, that covers her from her neck down to her thighs, and today was no exception, over which, was a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam, and a pocket on each side, a dark orange mini-skirt, a dark blue belt, and pale grey shin guards. She wore the typical forehead protector, also wearing a small pendant, that looks like a snake fang, and a wristwatch. Her name was Anko Mitarashi, and like Naruto, she was a social pariah here in the Leaf, all because she happened to have been a student of Orochimaru of the Sanin, now a missing-nin, she was also one of his Aunt's best-friends, they were almost like sisters, which made Anko one of Naruto's precious people. Which was reciprocated by the buxom kunoichi, just promoted to full Jonin, finally.

Naruto smiled pleasantly when he saw her, "Anko-oba-san, good of you to come down here, I was wondering what you were waiting for," he mused?

Anko gave him a quick smile of greeting, before turning back to face the Haruno matriarch, "I'm the one that's been training her for two-years, and I see her as a little sister," she confirmed Sakura's statement, "and I won't treat her like a slut, for wanting to be a kunoichi." She growled that last part in offence, and at this, Naruto looked at the Haruno woman in anger. He knows why Anko would say that, the stigma of kunoichi only being effective during sex, was an insult to kunoichi. This woman had basically just insulted his Aunts, Grandma, and Mother by saying that, and if you insult Naruto's family, you insulted him. He huffed his nose at the Haruno woman, but kept quiet, this was not about him, it was about Sakura.

"I had to hide my grades in school, at least the practical portions, as far as you knew I was just really smart, but weak," Sakura told her mother, "you and dad refused to allow me to train in fighting at home. I started to sneak out at night, and go to a training ground and practice, physical fitness, the katas for the taijutsu style taught at the Academy, throw training, anything I needed to work on to be a top kunoichi. On the bright side, you and dad in advertently allowed me to practice my stealth and evasion skills, so thanks for that contribution. From six-years-old to ten, I trained by myself, and was at least average in my class among females, but then a couple of months into my tenth year, I met Anko-sensei. She had apparently been watching me train, and was impressed with my dedication, so she trained me in her taijutsu style, Serpent-style, and coached me further in throw training, and I started rising in skill among not just the kunoichi of my class, but the shinobi too. However, in order to appease my so-called parents, I couldn't showcase my true talents in school, or you'd know I wasn't the meek little girl you hoped I'd be, but again, without meaning to, you helped me train to be a skilled ninja, you helped me train in deception and strategy."

"Wow," Naruto whispered with wide-eyes, then turning his head to his oba-san, and asked her, "and you did all of this with Sakura in two-years?" At Anko's nod, Naruto shook his head in disbelief, and said, almost to himself, "imagine if she had that kind of support from the beginning, like I did. She could've been Rookie-of-the-Year for this class, instead of Hinata," which confused Sakura; _what about him,_ but she let it go for now and turned back to her mother?

_Now, I know I'm in love with him,_ she thought with a blush. "Then when Naruto was put in my class, and all I was doing that first day, was thanking him for protecting me from bullies when I was six," Sakura informed her mother, "you and dad, threatened me with removal if I talked to him again. I don't know what it is about most adults in this village," Sakura asked, while looking between the other three people in the conversation, "Naruto is sweet and kind, to anybody he meets, but once they find out his name, they begin treating him like he's scum?" She looks between them, her mother, turned her head away in disgust, Naruto just looked sad, and Anko smiled uneasily, _time to lay my cards on the table_, "It's because he's got the Nine-tailed Fox, sealed into him isn't it," at that all three of them grew wide eyes.

"How did you know," came Naruto's small voice, like a little boy about to be punished?

"Wait," Anko exclaimed, looking at her nephew, "how did you know, Naruto-oi?"

"The clues were all there, Anko-oba-chan," Naruto said quietly. "My birthdate October 10th, 13-years-ago, I was the only child born that day, I snuck into the records office of the hospital once."

"Biju can't be killed," Sakura added, "they're beings made of pure chakra, they just regenerate after a time, the library has plenty of information, if one cared to do the research and put the pieces together."

Naruto nodded in agreement, "the only thing that can be done with a biju, is to seal them into a vessel, but they're too powerful to use an inanimate object, they will eventually break out of one. So the only way to ensure they remain locked away, is to seal them into a living creature; a human. The Kyūbi's chakra, however, is too powerful for just anybody to house it, only an infant whose umbilical cord has just been cut, would work, because their chakra coils have not yet fully formed, and again, I was the only child born that day."

"There that's the proof you need to know that he's the Nine-tailed Fox," Mebuki ranted, "it should be executed, for all the people it murdered!"

"Screw you, bitch," came Anko's reply!

"Mom," Sakura snapped, and as her mother turned to her, she saw her daughter holding a storage scroll, and a kunai. Sakura brought them close and said, "watch closely. Fuin," and the kunai was sealed into the scroll, then she made the sign of the Tiger, and touched her finger to the scroll, the scroll immediately became alight. The scroll burned quickly, but steadily, Sakura was holding one end of it, when there was a metal clang on the ground, as the kunai returned to this dimension. "This is what happens when you destroy a storage scroll, whatever is inside is released, so killing Naruto at this point is a really, bad idea. We don't have any Sealing Masters in the Yondaime's caliber, even Jiraiya-sama is below his skill," Sakura informed her mother.

"Then he should be locked in prison for life," Sakura's mother raged, "he should be kept away from decent human beings."

"Show me a decent human being, and I might agree with you," Anko muttered.

Sakura for one had enough, "you're a disgrace," she spat, "and I'm ashamed of you, to think that I came from such a small petty woman like you, and all that bullshit you and dad foisted upon me over the years. How a woman is supposed to act around her man, basically supposed to lick his boots, well, I've noticed that in all of the other girl's houses I've been to, nobody acted like that. The men in those families, actually treated their wives and daughters like they were worth more to them, than to be used as a token to advance their family fortunes. I don't know why, all you and dad ever saw me as was a form of currency, to trade to another family to add to dad's business, but I know it's not how some others view their children." She took another storage scroll and sealed another kunai inside it, "you accuse kunoichi of being nothing but whores, using their feminine wiles to get close to a target, and yet that's all you've ever viewed me as anyway. Only you'd rather see me, an abject slave to whatever man you would deem worthy enough to help, dad advance his business. So, if you and that man who sired me do not view me as a meaningful part of your family, then I'll just stop being in your family."

"No," Mebuki yelled, as she reached out her hand, she was now leaking tears from her eyes, "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan, please give us another chance!"

Without a word, just a sneer of disgust, Sakura threw the scroll in her hand directly at her mother's head, striking her in the forehead, "that's a storage scroll, Haruno-san," she told her mother, "inside is one kunai, when you come to me and tell me, what that represents, we can begin to try being a family again, until then, stay the hell away!" The two women stared at each other, one, hoping the other would change her mind, the other, resolute in her convictions. The older woman, picked up the scroll and turned to leave, looking as defeated as she felt. Sakura watched the retreating form of her mother, careful to keep her face still, and her eyes hard if Mebuki looked back.

Finally, her mother gone, Sakura's face crumbled, her eyes began to water and her shoulders began to shake, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over and saw, deep-blue pools of warmth staring back at her, and they understood how painful that was for her. Without hesitation, Sakura pushed herself against him burying her face in his chest, and released the floodgates on her emotions, she shook like a leaf in the wind.

Naruto looked over at Anko, the silent suggestion in his eyes, she nodded and walked over to the couple. He picked Sakura up, and as Anko reached them she grabbed his shoulder, Sakura was oblivious to the world but she held onto Naruto, burying her head deeper in his neck. Anko shunshinned all three of them to her, and now Sakura's new home. His aunt led them inside, he of course had been here before, but the last time was over a month ago. Still holding the rosette kunoichi closely, he asked, "Sakura-chan, do you think, you can get to your room on your own, or do you want me to carry you there?" Her arms briefly tightened on him for a second, but before he could move, she set her feet on the ground and stood on her own two feet.

Sakura's eyes were still wet and red from weeping, but she was able to smile for him, "thank you Naruto-kun, for being here today, don't know how I would have handled it without you."

Naruto returned her smile with a slightly brighter one of his own, "it should be me, thanking you, Sakura-chan, I've despaired of ever meeting anybody who knew about Kyūbi and still accepted me, I was losing faith in the people of Konoha. I was beginning to wonder if I should become a Ronin, and leave Konoha," he admitted, "but then you found out about the Fox, on your own, and not only did you accept me, you didn't change the way you treated me. So, thank you," he finished.

Sakura gave him a small smile, then grabbing his arm, she leaned up and kissed his cheek, before turning and heading to her room. As the door closed, Naruto still blushing from the kiss, it was his first after all, turned to leave, but found his 'beloved' Aunt leering at him suggestively. "My-my Naruto," she teased, "and I thought you carried a torch for Nai-chan, who knew you were such a player, stud-san?"

"Lay off, Anko-oba," Naruto replied, "that was just to say thank you for being there for her today," he said, "I don't think Sakura likes me like that, and besides, it's not like Kurenai would be interested in a Genin that failed his Graduation Exam twice."

Anko, still smiling, was about to say something else, when the Village alarm started going off. They looked outside and noticed it was dark, they heard Sakura's door open, she stepped out, "what is going on?"

There was a knock on the door, and when it opened, Neko was on the other side, her voice was barely maintaining her ANBU professionalism, when she asked, "Mitarashi Anko, have you seen, Uzumaki Naruto?"

Anko pointed to the shinobi standing in her living room, "what's this about, Neko-san?"

The ANBU just asked another question, "how long has Uzumaki been here?"

"We've only been here for a few minutes," Anko answered and Neko visibly blanched, "but Naruto, Sakura and myself, have been in each other's presence for a few hours now." Neko's demeanor brightened at that, but Anko demanded, "Why, what's happened?"

"The Scroll of Seals was just found missing, and camera footage showed Naruto Uzumaki was the one that stole it, but if he was with you, at the time of the theft…"

"That doesn't necessarily prove my innocence, Neko-kun," Naruto reminded her, "if I used a Flash Clone, while I was with them, I could still have stolen the Scroll."

All three kunoichi looked at him like he was crazy, and he scoffed, "I'm thinking like a thief who would use something like this to frame me. So, I demand, to be escorted to the Hokage, and want the two Heads of Torture and Interrogation, not present here to be there to interrogate me." Then with a growl he finished, "someone is trying to frame me, thinking that I would cowardly choose to run instead of facing my accusers, which means they don't know who I am, or at least have a warped impression of me," his eyes were turning red as he grew angry, "and once I clear my name, **they're going to pay!"**


	5. Scrolls, Seals, and Teams

**Scrolls, Seals, and Teams**

**The Scroll**

The Corps of the Konoha ninja, stood atop the Hokage Tower, haranguing her about the importance of the scroll. It was dark and they were demanding the Hokage take a hard-nosed approach against Naruto Uzumaki, who had allegedly stolen Konoha's most sacred treasure, the Sacred Scroll of Sealing, a scroll which contains the village's most dangerous jutsu.

"Lady Hokage, this is not a joke, this is a serious crime against our village," one of the shinobi informed her with a growl!

"That Scroll contains secrets, that the First Hokage deemed too dangerous to be used by just anybody," another ninja reminded her!

Tsunade narrowed her eyes, "I know perfectly well why my grandfather created that Scroll," she admonished them, "if the Scroll falls into enemy hands, it could spell disaster for not just our village, but for the entire world at large as well." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, despite her love for Naruto, her duty to the village came first, she opened her eyes and drew herself up to her full height. In addition to her normal mode of dress, she was wearing the robes and hat of the Hokage, her eyes hardened, "Bring Naruto here, at once!"

Before they could form a reply, another voice yelled out, "I'm already here," everybody in the room froze, then turned to find themselves staring at the aforementioned, Jinchuriki! Standing next to the blonde, was Anko Mitarashi, another kunoichi with rosette-hair, and an ANBU wearing the cat mask, call-sign, Neko, "and, I didn't take the scroll."

"That's right, Naruto, has been in my presence for the last couple of hours," Anko told them, "Sakura here can testify to that as well, as can Haruno Mebuki," then added, "though in her current state of mind, she might not be a credible witness."

"If you say he was in your presence," the Hokage asked, "then why come here, that would be enough corroboration to unfound the accusations?"

"Uzumaki Naruto-san, insisted on coming here," Neko informed her Shadow, "he wanted to prove his innocence beyond a shadow of a doubt."

The other ninja present were astounded, with the testimony of two witnesses, and possibly a third, he would have been cleared, "Why would he do that," one of those present ninja asked?

"Because with my Flash Clones, I could've pulled off the theft, and deliberately allowed myself to be seen in other places to throw off suspicion," Naruto informed them, "I wouldn't even need to be there, if all I wanted to do was read the thing. Senko Bunshin, have the same memory transference capability of Shadow Clones, from what my Aunt has told me."

"Then why not go out and find the culprit yourself," another ninja asked?

Naruto gave a self-deprecating smile, "because of another ninjutsu I invented, Shin-henge," he reminded them, "I can change my appearance, down to the last freckle on your ass, and nobody could tell the difference between you or me. Even a genetic test would show up as the person I was mimicking," then he blushed, "there would be only one way to tell the difference, and only the Hokage and the hospital administrator, Kato Shizune-kun know that method."

"Excuse me, Uzumaki-san," Neko added, stepping forward, "there is a way to make sure it's you and not a Flash Clone."

Naruto narrowed his eyes in thought, then shook his head and looked at the ANBU, "how, Neko-kun," he asked?

Neko looked at her Hokage for permission, who just nodded, unsure what Neko was talking about herself. Neko stepped forward, turned to Naruto, and bowed, "this is just a demonstration, please do not take what I'm about to do personally." Naruto, still confused, was in the process of nodding his head, when Neko drew back her hand, and punched him dead in the face. Neko is a powerful kunoichi, and while the punch was not enough to knock him over, it did push him back several paces. He was holding his nose as a trickle of blood came leaking out.

All the ninja present were shocked, none more so than Tsunade, she jerked her head to Neko, "explain yourself, Neko," she ordered, "why would _you_ of all people, punch him?"

"My apologies, Hokage-sama," she bowed to her, then to Naruto, "Naruto-kun, it was merely a demonstration, to show you that." Neko pointed at the blood coming out of Naruto's nose, "Flash Clones don't bleed when they're injured, just a trickle of light in the corresponding injury, before it heals itself."

"So, does this mean every time I see Naruto, I get to punch him," Anko asked with a grin, cupping her fist, "I could do that no problem." The other ninja present grinned deviously, "Uh, boys and girls, I get to punch him, anybody else touches him like that, I'll gut them, and hang their corpse in a tree."

"You can punch me, Anko," Naruto growled, the Kyūbi already healing the injury, "if you want a fight on your hands."

Anko grew serious again, "Naruto has insisted on being subjected to T&I, and said, he will only submit to Morino-sempai, and Yamanaka-sama," she hardened her eyes, "he felt any other member could be soft on him, and I have to agree, I know I would be soft on him."

"Agreed," Tsunade stated, "ANBU!" Two ANBU, one in a Bear mask, the other a Crow mask, and Neko, stepped forward, "Kuma, I want you to take Naruto Uzumaki into custody and guard him closely. Karasu, I want you to go get Ibiki, then inform the Uchiha chief of police to continue the search for Naruto Uzumaki, tell her about how to determine a flash clone from a real body. Neko, I want you to escort Inoichi back here yourself, and you have my permission to inform him of certain sensitive material about Naruto, when he gets here. As clan-chief, only you have that right," Tsunade looked at all of her subordinates, "the rest of you will aid the search for Naruto and Scroll, keep in mind they may have ditched the Naruto disguise by now, but no deadly force, unless he leaves you with no other options. Is that clear," their Hokage asked?

"Hai, Hokage-sama," they all bellowed, before taking off to do their tasks.

The ANBU in the Bear mask took Naruto into custody, placing chakra restraints on him, and leading him to a holding cell within Hokage mansion. As soon as everybody was gone, Tsunade turned to Anko and Sakura, "Please, follow me to my office, I want to know everything that happened between you and Naruto today," she ordered, then saw Sakura with an alarmed expression, "rest assured, anything personal won't go beyond me."

It was minutes later, Tsunade was sitting behind her desk, Sakura and Anko sitting on a couch to the side, had been talking about this afternoon's events, and the recollection of events had taken its toll on the rosette kunoichi. She was leaning her head on Anko's shoulder, looking worn out, when there was a knock on the Hokage's door. "Come in," the Hokage asked, the door opened and two men walked in, they were as different from each other, as night and day, one was wearing a watch cap, and a dark trench coat, whose face looked as if he chewed rocks like candy, for fun. The other had long, ash-blonde hair reaching into his lower back, which he wore spiky on top and ending in a long ponytail, blue-green eyes and strong facial features, which included a well-defined jaw-line. Inoichi Yamanaka was wearing the standard flak jacket over a black outfit, complete with hand-guards, forehead protector and a sleeveless red haori.

"Ah, Ibiki, Inoichi, thank you for coming on such short notice," Tsunade, greeted them urbanely, "Inoichi, I'm sorry for taking you away from your celebrations regarding Ino's graduation, but this is something that couldn't be avoided. Downstairs in the Mansion's holding cells is Naruto Uzumaki, he has been accused of something, that could land him in prison. I will not contaminate your methods by giving you unnecessary information, I need you to get whatever you can from him, regarding his whereabouts at all times today. Inoichi, you are authorized to go into his mind, don't forget what you might find in there, and there is also some top secret information in there besides the Kyūbi, which according to these ladies he knows all about, that information is information on a new kekkei tota that he discovered. Anything you discover about that is an S-ranked secret, punishable by death, if divulged." Sakura tensed up and looked at her Hokage, who waved her hand to indicate she had everything under control, "also there is information regarding a personal matter, between Sakura of the Leaf, and Mebuki Haruno, which Naruto was a party to earlier today, that information is Need-to-Know only, and only you, and Ibiki-san, besides Naruto and the people in this room are in the Need-to-Know."

"Ibiki-sempai, use whatever interrogation and torture methods you see fit," Anko added, "if Naruto is a cowardly traitor, then he would deserve it if you did your worst," she growled bitterly, "and if not, well then nobody will say we went soft on him, because he's family."

Ibiki looked hard at his junior in the department, "you sure, Anko-chan, because those methods will leave permanent damage, not on his body, but on his mind, most don't recover from that?"

Anko looked down, then up into her superiors' eyes, "it's what Naruto himself said, he wanted," she told them, "when, Neko showed up at my apartment to get him, he specifically, wanted you two to interrogate him, he said anybody else would probably be too easy on him. Naruto wants to clear his name, he gets plenty of flack just for being a Jinchuriki, he doesn't want the added stigma of being labeled a traitor too," Anko looked down, and whispered, "_like me_."

Ibiki's face became impassive, as he got his game face on, "Very well, Anko," he replied, "just don't blame me if after this, he wants nothing to do with either of you, beyond what's necessary."

"Is there any more information you wish to give us, Hokage-sama," Inoichi asked calmly? Tsunade just shook her head in the negative, "then we shall proceed, and hope we uncover the truth before our methods permanently damage the young man." They opened the door to the office and left.

Twenty, long minutes passed, when there was a quick knock on the door before it was opened and the Sandaime rushed in, holding a TV-VCR combination television. "Where is Naruto," he asked without preamble?

Tsunade answered, sensing the urgency in her sensei's voice, "he's down in an interrogation chamber with Morino-san, and Yamanaka-san."

Tsunade watched her sensei's eyes grow wide, then sat the TV-VCR combo down on the desk, "here, press play, Hokage-sama! I'm going to avert a disaster, before it gets any bigger," he said, and then turned and bolted with every bit of speed, being a God Among Shinobi required. A few seconds later, a crash like thunder was heard in the bowels of the Mansion, immediately followed by the sound of a collision with a wall. In the meantime, Tsunade, Anko, and Sakura watched what Sarutobi had left for them.

They heard steps out in the hallway approaching, Hiruzen led the way inside, followed by a smirking Inoichi, and a Head of T&I rubbing his head and whining, "but did you have to hit me so hard into the wall, Sandaime-sama," he sounded like he was just a step or two from bawling like a newborn, "you could've just told me to stop."

"My apologies, Ibiki-kun," the Third amended, "it was as much adrenaline, as it was chakra, but when one's loved ones are at stake these things tend to happen. Did anything interesting come up, in the short-time you were working," he asked?

Ibiki's admiring smile, made him somewhat handsome at certain angles, "the kid's tough, and not just physically, but mentally too, we had been going at him hard for just a few minutes, but he just kept quiet, answering every question he felt like answering, but not budging on anything he refused to answer. I've seen Jonin crack with less," Ibiki qualified, then looking at the rosette kunoichi, "he didn't talk about anything except his locations and movements, nothing of a personal nature about anybody, but himself." Sakura looked up, because she knew he was talking about what happened, earlier today, "he cares about his friendships." Sakura smiled a grateful smile, before turning back to the screen, in awe.

"What was so important, Sarutobi-sama, that you had to bulldoze through a door to tell us," Inoichi asked stoically, then raised an eyebrow, "that couldn't have waited long enough to open the door?"

Hiruzen chuckled, "I know you well enough, Inoichi, to know you like to keep the door locked while you work, and you probably soundproofed it too, so knocking wouldn't have worked, I used the most efficient and expedient method I could think of to get your attention." Then getting serious and pointing at the TV on the Hokage's desk, "this is why I had to stop you before you went too far with Naruto," on the screen, were three displays; one on the bottom half of the screen, and two at the top, cutting the top portion in half. On the bottom portion was the video of Naruto entering the Hokage's office, locating and opening the safe to the Scroll, it was a clear picture, with no ambiguity in who was on the screen. The top portion was different however, one side was video of Naruto, Anko, Sakura, and Mebuki, during their confrontation this evening, which took place at the same time as the theft. The otherside, showed the video at the top of the Hokage Mansion, it showed everything that happened up there, from the meeting of the shinobi, Neko punching Naruto, to Tsunade and the other two kunoichi departing to talk in this very office. What was unique about the top displays from that of the bottom, was the difference in Naruto's image. It looked like there were multiple Narutos at different places around the picture, doing different, but plausible things as events unfolded, each of them were different spectra, from red to violet, and they did not change any other participant's actions. The actions Naruto actually took, were in the actual spectra of the shinobi's clothing, hair, and skin-tone.

There was a chuckle from the doorway, and they all looked up to see Naruto with his arms crossed, leaning casually against the door frame, he looked, a little worse for wear, but looking pretty good, all things considered. There was a difference in his eyes though, to those seeing it for the first time it was quite disconcerting, his eyeballs were completely white, the only thing they could liken them too was the Byakugan, but in the center the pupil was in the shape of a diamond, running vertically, elongated to the north and south of the eyeball. He appeared to be looking at something with those eyes, "we never thought about looking at me through a camera did we, old man," he asked Sarutobi? Still viewing whatever he seemed to be looking at, Naruto explained his theory, "the different spectra of light, were some of the things I thought about doing in each of those circumstances, the least likely scenarios I considered, the further away from my natural spectra and façade you get. It must be a side-effect from using a film camera, I wonder how I'd look in one of those new digital cameras," he asked absently?

Everybody, except the Sandaime and the Godaime, were looking between the monitor and the ninja, wondering how, the Hell, he could know what was being shown on the TV? Finally Naruto moved away from the door, walking to the Hokage's desk, "with your permission, Baa-chan," he asked, and she huffed but nodded, she had just had him tortured and though he had requested it, it was still her responsibility, he was allowed some leeway to do what he must to clear his name. Naruto opened her bottom drawer and pulled out the crystal ball, "let's see what the perv-ball can tell me about what happened in this room a few hours ago." All the kunoichi in the room looked at the Third, hard, who looked like a little boy, caught stealing cookies, with his head ducked, arms behind his back, and toeing the carpet.

Naruto began concentrating, feeling the molecules moving through the air, the floor, everything that was in the office, except the people currently inside it, then going deeper to the atoms, further to the electron shells, and deeper into the atomic nuclei. The nuclei and electrons began releasing photons, at first in the form of gamma-and-x-rays, then he began slowing the oscillations of the photons, and lengthening the waves, which decreased their photonic energy. The photons projected out of their phase of matter, and struck the crystal ball, they appeared in the form of beams, lancing out from the atoms and molecules that made up all the matter within the office. Naruto drew the light toward the crystal ball, making it bend around the other objects that were not in the room at the time of the theft, namely the people standing in it now, including himself. It accumulated within the crystal ball, until the ball could not contain it anymore.

"Naruto," the Sandaime asked, "what are you doing?"

Without looking, Naruto thrust his hand out, and with a twitch of photokinetic impulse, moved the light switch down and off, which darkened the room, and finally answered his grandfather-figure, "I had a thought experiment last night. What if light was one piece of a whole, it gets emitted from whatever its origin happens to be, and propagates through space and time, as a wave of electromagnetic radiation, until it hits some form of matter, and breaks apart? When it hits the gases, and dust particles in our atmosphere, it scatters, reflects, refracts, and diffuses, which is where we get blue skies, and why the Sun looks yellow to us. It continues to travel, losing speed, impacting different phases of matter, which has a doppler effect on the propagating wave of EMR. The waves compress as they strike the surface of the molecules, which causes the vibrational frequency of the photon to increase oscillations, adding energy to the photon, causing it to phase shift into different parts of the spectrum: Visible Light, UV, X-rays, then Gamma-rays, each phase absorbed by the different particles of an atom.

"Well, physics tells us that neither matter, nor energy can be created or destroyed, the same should hold true for electromagnetic radiation. Another spooky aspect is atoms, sometimes react to stimulus that is applied to a different atom, monks call it, spooky action at a distance. What if this spooky action wasn't coming from the atom itself, but from the wave of electromagnetic radiation they share, if they share the same light source, which ultimately, we all do, the Sun? The EMR is connected to every photon sympathetically, through space and time, which is what causes the spooky action," as he had talked, he continued to work his Light Chakra through the sphere, then looked around until he found a blank wall, and released the light from the ball. Here, he continued his explanation, absently, "what I have done, is reach into the atoms of the material substances of this office, and found the photons that were absorbed at the time of the video, Jiji, used to save my hide, then converted them back into the visible spectrum for humans, I could've just kept it in the ultraviolet wavelength, but I need witnesses to be able to confirm what I see…," he trailed off, as the image came into focus.

To be sure, the picture was not perfect, there seemed to be gaps in the image, uniform in appearance, very much like the pixels one saw on a computer photograph. Naruto explained them as the pieces of the EMR that were not absorbed by the office. What they saw, astounded them, because projected onto the wall, performing the same actions they watched on the video was Mizuki. He had a sneering smirk on his face, he seemed to be congratulating himself, on how clever he was, there was one moment when Mizuki's face turned bitter and resentful, and that was where Naruto narrowed his eyes. Naruto puffed his breath in relief, "At least, Mizuki-teme wasn't able to recreate my True Transformations, he must've been using the normal version," then he turned to them, "before the Hokage, does everyone in this room agree that they saw Mizuki no Konoha, commit the crime of theft, that it was Mizuki, and not Uzumaki Naruto who stole the Sacred Scroll of Sealing?"

"Before the Hokage, I, Sarutobi Hiruzen, affirm, that I saw Mizuki no Konoha, commit the crime of theft, that it was Mizuki, and not Uzumaki Naruto who stole the Sacred Scroll of Sealing," the Sandaime stated.

"Before the Hokage, I, Yamanaka Inoichi, affirm, that I saw Mizuki no Konoha, commit the crime of theft, that it was Mizuki, and not Uzumaki Naruto who stole the Sacred Scroll of Sealing," the Clan-Chief, and Director of Torture and Interrogation affirmed.

"Before the Hokage, I, Morino Ibiki, affirm, that I saw Mizuki no Konoha, commit the crime of theft, that it was Mizuki, and not Uzumaki Naruto who stole the Sacred Scroll of Sealing," the Head of Torture and Interrogation replied.

"Before the Hokage, I, Mitarashi Anko, affirm, that I saw Mizuki no Konoha, commit the crime of theft, that it was Mizuki, and not Uzumaki Naruto who stole the Sacred Scroll of Sealing," the Jonin of the Leaf said.

"Before the Hokage, I, Sakura of the Leaf, affirm, that I saw Mizuki no Konoha, commit the crime of theft, that it was Mizuki, and not Uzumaki Naruto who stole the Sacred Scroll of Sealing," the nascent Genin Kunoichi confirmed.

"I, Senju Tsunade, Godaime Hokage, affirm, that I saw Mizuki no Konoha, commit the crime of theft, that it was Mizuki, and not Uzumaki Naruto who stole the Sacred Scroll of Sealing," their Hokage declared, "then from hence forth so shall it be, from now unto dust, this is the truth and cannot be refuted," she decreed.

Naruto then ended the projection and began scrolling through the crystal ball, until he found the image he wanted, a picture of himself, at a derelict cabin sitting on the ground laughing his ass off. _Mizuki thinks he's clever, well we'll see how clever he thinks he is when I put my boot in his ass._ "I've found myself," he declared, then turned and knelt formally before his Hokage, "Hokage-sama, I beseech thee, to allow me to arrest the miscreant, who would have besmirched my good name, such as it is, with the citizens of Konoha?"

"If I allow this how would you get there, without being waylaid by every ninja out looking for you," Tsunade asked?

"We could go with him," they all looked and standing in the doorway was Uzumaki Yugao, standing with her looking impassive, was Itachi Uchiha, Hana Inuzuka with her companions the Haimaru brothers, Kurenai Yuhi, and Shisui Uchiha. Yugao was dressed as a normal jonin at the moment, and so was Itachi and Shisui, Hana, was a chunin, and dressed as one, while Kurenai wore her regular outfit consisting of a red mesh armour blouse with only the right sleeve visible, and a very broad material, which resembles bandages with a pattern on it similar to those of rose thorns. Her hands and upper thighs are also wrapped in bandages and she wore the Konoha forehead protector and regular shinobi sandals. "As his clan-chief I need to protect the honor of our clan, which that bastard threatened, and as we saw in the image on the wall, he thinks it's funny," she growled.

Naruto smirked, "I take it, Neko, and Karasu went off duty for the night?"

"Yes," Shisui informed him, "that's a fair assumption," then he winked.

At this Itachi spoke up, "with the ninja corps out in force, including all Uchiha Police officers, looking for Naruto-san," he said monotonously, "you will need someone with authority over them to keep them from arresting you, and as a captain on the force, and heir to the clan, I carry that authority. Uzumaki-san," he said indicating Yugao, "called in a favor to me from my days in the ANBU, to help escort you to Mizuki's location."

Naruto was heart warmed, "I'm glad my only living family member had so much faith in my innocence."

Tsunade assessed them, and weighed the consequences against the benefits, for all indications none of the ninja in Konoha have found Mizuki, and really Naruto deserved his pound of flesh, she looked at the still kneeling Genin in front of her. She looked at her Elder, who nodded his approval, "very well, I cannot go I must remain here, you may go get him, but my earlier orders regarding deadly force still apply, does anybody else wish to go with him?"

Anko looked at Sakura noticing her still saddened eyes, lots of emotional trauma for the day, "I'd like to, but I need to finish moving my new roommate into her room," then turning back to the others, "just let me have a crack at him once he's in custody."

"I would really like to returned to the graduation party in honor of my daughter," Yamanaka answered.

"I don't waste my time on petty amusements," Ibiki answered, "besides, like Anko said, he'll come to us eventually," he said with a sadistic smile.

"I will go along to make sure Naruto, doesn't go too far in his vengeance," Sarutobi answered, "I want him relatively healthy for his trip through T&I, and then enough time to recover for his trial," he finished with a growl. After losing two sons to traitors, one in war, and the other, Asuma, after grievous wounds from helping to quell the coup attempt on the Daimyo, by the Twelve Guardian Ninjas, Hiruzen took betrayal, very personally. A new corps of Guardians had been reborn from the ashes of the previous, and Konoha, had sent the married couple Kakashi and Rin Hatake, to represent them, though Rin was a reserve member now, because she was with child. If it was a boy, they will name him, Obito, for their fallen teammate.

"Thank you," Naruto told them all, then said, "the bastard is laughing his ass off at a… shed of some kind as we speak," he informed them, Naruto headed for the Hokage's bay window, "I can lead you to him." Naruto hopped out of the window, without a second glance and the rest followed after him.

* * *

**Seals**

At the shed, Mizuki has just finished his latest fit of laughter, he was still transformed into the Demon brat. When Iruka backed out of stealing the scroll at the last minute, Mizuki thought about doing it as well, but the thought of taking that thing down a peg after its performance was too delicious to let go, that thing needed to be taken down. Before it destroyed the village again, and who better to do the taking down than the very people it had fooled into thinking it was human? _I wonder how long it'll run for, before it gets taken down, and if everything goes according to plan, I'll be the one to destroy the cowardly beast?_

As he was thinking about this, Naruto and the others who had traveled here with him from the Hokage's office, landed on whatever trees and branches would hold them. Mizuki had not seen them yet, because any good ninja knows not to go barreling into unfamiliar territory, they studied the terrain. It was not a very large clearing, and indeed the only thing in the clearing was the shed, which looked like a laborers building for them to rest in between work. Naruto saw himself, still chuckling at what someone thought would be a great prank, and got angry, but he was cautious still, _Mizuki has the scroll, so what was he waiting for_, and it dawned on Naruto, "I don't think Mizuki-teme wants to get away…"

"Very good, Naruto," Hiruzen congratulated him, "what do you think he's waiting to do here?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes in thought, he saw the scroll laying on the ground, it looked untouched, like it had not been opened yet. "He hasn't opened it yet, and in the vision I saw, he was too busy laughing to have read it," he reasoned, "he's had a couple of hours, plenty of time to at least get a look inside it…" then his eyes hardened, "I'm just speculating, but I think he wants to get credit for finding it, and maybe for disposing of the Kyūbi-brat." He looked up at his superiors, to see how they thought of that logic?

Most of them were nodding, as if that was sound logic, Itachi just stared at the Chunin in the form of Naruto, his Aunt was looking at the true-Naruto in astonishment, she was not there when Sakura and Anko were telling their story, she had gone off duty to change once she escorted Inoichi to the Mansion, and Sarutobi was looking at him with a proud, fond smile, and nodded at the reasoning. "That seems a reasonable assumption, but remember reason isn't always fact, there could be any number of ways this could play out," the veteran of three Great Ninja Wars, cautioned his surrogate grandson.

Naruto nodded, then got a devious grin on his face, "well first order of business, is to get the scroll away from him, right," he asked, to all their nods? He put his hands into the sign he invented to make his clones, he calls this handsign, the oculus, then whispered, "_Senko Bunshin,_" and one of his Flash clones shimmered into existence at the foot of the tree. Sarutobi gasped, and as Naruto looked at him, he grinned, "I've been experimenting with them, to use other forms of EMR, besides light," he told his research partner. "I shall send the clone in to distract my former teacher," then uncovered a tattoo on his forearm, it looked like an expanded form of the Uzumaki spiral, only with dots along the arms instead of ink-strokes. He applied a little of his normal chakra, to one of the dots along an arm of the spiral and extracted a scroll from it.

Yugao looked at him with wide eyes, "Naruto, you're not going to…," Naruto just grinned maliciously.

"What is it," Itachi asked sharply, yet quietly, and they were all looking at the scroll now, though still utterly calm?

"That tattoo is where my nephew keeps the dividends of his Bakuyaku (Explosion) Chakra, that he uses to augment his already more efficient, explosive fuinjutsu," she told them, "the closer you get to the epicenter of the spiral, the more powerful the explosion."

"Not to worry," Naruto said seriously, "this one is more concussive than destructive, Baa-chan said no deadly force, and I'm following orders." He looked over at Kurenai and shyly asked, "Kurenai-chan, would you please, place a genjutsu on this to make it look like the Sacred Scroll?"

Kurenai looked puzzled, but took the scroll from him, "sure but won't the chakra from the illusion, affect the chakra of the explosive?"

Naruto shook his head, "I developed this level of explosive scrolls, specifically for sabotage-missions and the like, so I added a barrier-line to prevent other chakra from corrupting the seal of the explosive."

Kurenai nodded and went to work constructing the genjutsu Naruto needed, but someone else had in issue with his choice, "why didn't you ask me to do it, I'm known for being good with genjutsu, too," Shisui asked in faux-petulance?

"Well, I know Kurenai-chan, better than I know you, Shisui-san," Naruto answered, then added, "plus from what I heard about your reputation, you're quite skilled at area-effect illusions, and even personal genjutsu," Shisui preened at his praise, "but your sensory-genjutsu lack a certain subtlety, they have a bluntness to them, kind of like a battle-axe to the face."

Shisui sulked, though it was mostly an act, his sensory-genjutsu were something he has been working on in his training, "and I supposed Yuhi-san doesn't have that problem?"

"No, from what I heard," Naruto told him, "her genjutsu are like works of art, and she can vary the intensity of her genjutsu in subtlety and nuance, as much as she needs to in all categories. It's why she's called the Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha, and you're still Shun-shin no Shisui," Naruto told him, and there was nothing in his voice to indicate he was giving anything, but cold facts, as he saw them to the Uchiha. Kurenai handed him back his scroll, there was nothing about her demeanor to indicate she had listened to anything Naruto had said about her genjutsu acumen, but as he inspected it, he, without looking at anything but the scroll, said quietly, "and she has pretty eyes to boot." Naruto, without turning to see how she took his last statement, turned to his grandfather-figure, who was smirking at the Genin, and handed it to Sarutobi, "here, Jiji, you've been around the Scroll a lot more than we have, would this fool you if you didn't know any better?"

The Sandaime took the fake, Sacred Scroll of Sealing, and growing serious, inspected the object closely, looking at it from one end to the other. "This will definitely deceive anyone, not as intimately familiar with the true Sacred Scroll, as I am," Sarutobi assured, then turned to the kunoichi who made the genjutsu, "very good, my dear, I'd say Naruto's assessment of your skills is accurate, to say the least."

"Thank you, Sandaime-sama," she bowed with a modest blush on her cheeks.

"I have a question," Hana stated, her companions were on the ground, sitting in readiness to do their mistresses bidding, they all looked at her to go on, "we've been sitting on this tree having a grand old time, talking like we're at a family restaurant. Why hasn't Mizuki been alerted to our presence," she asked, "he may not be the most competent ninja out there, but he is a Chunin?"

Before the others could begin to wonder about that as well, Naruto answered it for her, "That's because of me," he said. "What I'm about to tell you all is an S-ranked secret, that only the Hokage, myself, Oba-san, and Sandaime-jiji, have been privy to, and now maybe Sakura-chan, Anko-chan, Morino-san, and Yamanaka-san," they all nodded for him to continue, "I have a kekkei tota that allows me to control electromagnetic radiation, or what is commonly known as Light. I won't go into detail, but what is relevant here is that I have an EM Field, that I can project around me like a bubble. I can convert it to different wavelengths along the spectrum, tonight while we've been coming up with our plan, and bantering, I converted it to the microwave bandwidth. Microwaves don't have much use as far as we know," he said indicating himself, Yugao, and Hiruzen, the latter two just nodded, "but we've discovered that they have the ability to disrupt sound waves. When we landed here on the tree, I projected my EM Field to encompass this tree, and the microwaves have been channeling the soundwaves coming from this tree, into the ground."

They all looked at each other, but before they could continue talking, the former Hokage, the leader of this mission because of his seniority ordered, "let's get back on mission, now isn't the time for scientific enquiry."

"Hai, Sandaime-sama," they answered.

Naruto pointed his fingers at his own Kidogan, "I'm deactivating my dojutsu, when I do, I cannot maintain this wavelength with my EM Field, so ninja stealth after that, understand?" The rest of them nodded in understanding, Naruto signaled his clone to get his attention, who looked at him and his creator, made a slashing motion and deactivated their Eyes of Luminance. Then Naruto signaled his clone to start the op, and the clone began to act the part of the distressed fugitive.

Naruto came running into the clearing, looking like he had been running for quite some time. He entered the clearing, breathing only a little heavily, when he spotted his duplicate and stepped back in shock. "What… what is this," Flash-Naruto yelled out in distress, taking a step back in horror?

Naruto-Mizuki just grinned at his dupe's terror-stricken face, relishing the torment coming from the apparent Nine-tails, he stood up and his grin turned smug, "this is the end for you, Kyūbi no Kitsune, you may have everyone else deceived, but you will never fool me, monster!" There was a puff of smoke, and the fake Naruto became the real Mizuki, he was wearing the same smug expression he had during his henge. Mizuki was in standard shinobi garb, but had added two giant, four-pointed shuriken, they were called Fuma shuriken, named after an obscure clan in Gohan no Kuni. "I will be seen as a hero," he began gloating, "maybe not by that whore of a Hokage, if she or that old man before her, had been willing to overlook that mask you wear in the form of a child, they might have been able to dispose of you, properly. But, what can we expect from a kunoichi-whore, and a doddering old fool, who should've been put out to pasture long before now."

"What are you talking about, Mizuki-sensei," Flash-Naruto asked trying to look ignorant of what the bastard was saying about the Fox?

"You still wish to pretend, Fox, even now," Mizuki wondered in astonishment, then in a more serious voice, added, "fine, I'll humor this farce of yours for a moment? Do you want to know why almost every person in this village despises you," he asked, Mizuki was relishing his perceived victory so much that he failed to notice the shimmer at his feet? Naruto had stealthily substituted his explosive scroll for the real scroll and handed it over to the Sandaime. Now that the official part of the mission is over, Naruto can get on with collecting his payment for the mission, Mizuki's hide. "This whole village has been lying to you," Mizuki stated grandly, "since the Hokage's decree, twelve years ago."

"What decree…" Flash-Naruto asked, expressing his fear of the answer he already knew, needing to buy time to make sure their ruse worked?

"Everyone knows except you, Naruto," Mizuki proclaimed with a leer, "the decree forbids anyone from revealing actually the Demon Fox, that attacked Konoha, twelve-years-ago." F-Naruto's eyes became surprised, "The Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit, that killed mine and so many other's parents, children, spouses, has taken you over. I mean, how a child can hope to fight the power of an entity like that is inconceivable. It is inevitable, that the fox would invade the body and mind of that child you inhabit," Mizuki's face actually became sympathetic, "that boy whose body you invaded, monster, is unfortunately a victim of circumstance, his frail body is now your great weakness," Mizuki took the giant wheels of death from his back, preparing for battle, "and when I finally prove who you are, then the beautiful Yugao, you have tricked into believing she was related to you, will finally know the truth, Nine-tails!"

Up in the tree, the violette Uzumaki made a slight gagging noise, and when all but Naruto looked at her, she was holding a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from retching. "When that happens, she will see, that me and only me is the right man for her to be with, and she will drop the walking Cough-in ninja." Mizuki ridiculed Hayate Gekkō, who had an incurable cough, and those who did not respect him or his skills, often and out of ear-range of Yugao, called him Cough-in ninja, which sounded like Coffin-ninja. F-Naruto appeared to have been horrified by what Mizuki was telling him, seemed to be lost in thought, when a malicious grin bloomed on Mizuki's face, "and now that you know, its time to fix the mistake left to us by the Fourth Hokage," as he said that, Mizuki took a twisting, loping lunge, flinging one of the giant stars directly at the Flash clone of Naruto.

At the last minute, the clone put up his hand, and extended his magnetic chakra that attached to the metal of the shuriken, halting it in mid-air, it was still spinning with the angular momentum the Chunin imparted upon it. Mizuki was surprised by the move, but figuring the creature's action a fluke, continued his own motion and threw his remaining shuriken at the creature. Flash-Naruto, added a little more angular momentum by increasing the rate of the shuriken's spin, using a touch more magnetic energy to one-side, before releasing the Fuma shuriken, sending it back the way it came. The first shuriken, intersected with the second, but because the first shuriken was spinning, and also moving faster than the second shuriken, thus increasing mass, the first Fuma sheered through the second, like the Raijin no ken through butter. The first one was also destroyed, and there was shrapnel flying, the real Naruto used his EM-Field to protect those in the tree with him, just in case.

Flash-Naruto and Mizuki were not so lucky, the Chunin covered his head with his arms, and was spared any vital damage, though his arms were festooned with metallic bits, his body was also hit, but his Chunin flak-jacket protected him from any injuries. F-Naruto was likewise injured, but of course no blood came from any wounds, only a cascade of light emanated from his wounds, and as he casually looked down at his body, and Mizuki looked at it in horror, the clone looked back up at his foe, and said, "and now I leave you with a snap," he quipped, the clone brought his fingers up and snapped them, while accessing the explosive chakra in the explosive scroll, only a few feet behind the Chunin… "BA-BOOM!" The scroll behind the Chunin exploded, and it felt like the Kyūbi himself hitting him in the back, as it threw Mizuki forward, hard, and the Flash Clone dissolves into a pool of bright, almost angelic light.

Mizuki lay in a sprawled out position, he was totally disoriented from the concussive energy from the bomb. There was a blur of motion as all the ninja in the tree appeared next to Mizuki's prone form, Naruto had appeared with the other ninja with a plasma blade in each hand. These were expressions of Naruto's third kekkei genkai, Plasma release, there were others but this was Naruto's go to jutsu, because of how versatile they were to any situation. Depending on how Naruto excited the electrons in them, plasma blades could be used as a virtually unstoppable blade, or an unbreakable bludgeon and he could alternate between these states instantly.

Naruto looked down at the Chunin, whom was still recovering from the explosion. Naruto's disgust for the man knew no bounds, and he wanted to vent his frustration upon his former teacher. Today, should have been a day of celebration for Naruto, and except for the situation with Sakura and her mom, it would have been. This bastard has taken, what could have been a great day, and turned it into one of the most stressful moments of Naruto's life. He tried to take something away from Naruto that he had worked hard to earn, and when he had finally gotten his hitai-ate, Mizuki nearly made all of Naruto's hard work meaningless. Naruto gripped his plasma blades harder, he was visibly shaking, then he closed his eyes and took a calming breath, then formally addressed the fallen ninja, "Konoha no Mizuki-san, by order of Senju Tsunade, Godaime Hokage no Konohagakure no Sato, I hereby place you under arrest, for sedition and treason, for the theft of the village's Sacred Scroll of Sealing."

Yugao looked at her nephew out of curiosity, wondering where his anger has gone, "are you sure of this, Naruto-oi-kun, after everything he has done aren't you going to punish him?"

Naruto shook his head, "As clan chief, you may exact whatever price you wish for the Uzumaki," he stated, "you may even order me to do it and I will carry it out, but personally, this pathetic piece of trash has taken enough from me today. My honor, dignity, and happiness over graduating the Academy," Naruto said to her, "but he accused me of being a monster, and I would be, if I attacked someone who couldn't defend themselves. He has taken a lot from me, I won't let him have my humanity," he declared, "my clone wounded him with the shards of the Fuma shuriken, and my explosive appears to have put Mizuki down for the count, I've taken my pound of flesh from him. I'm satisfied," Naruto assured them all, "let the Hokage have what's left," he appeared to be finished, before adding one last thing with an evil smile on his face, "but when I make my report, I'll be sure to include all of the colorful names he called her. That may sway her from showing any mercy on him, at sentencing," he finally finished.

Itachi looked at him and for the first time chuckled, "I didn't think you could be so cruel, Naruto-san," then sobering, "and I would like to thank you and Sakura-san, for teaching my little brother humility, today. Because of you two, the last of my fathe… the former Uchiha clan chief's influence has been washed out of him, he came home with a somber attitude this afternoon, and really seemed to be thinking over how he saw his career as a ninja."

Naruto and Yugao shared a smirk, before she put her arm around his, and turned away from the S-ranked ninja, "my campaign to humble your brother, is not yet complete, Itachi-san," Naruto called back over his shoulder, "the true humiliation comes next week, at team placements."

* * *

**Teams**

Today was the date for team placements, and Naruto walked into the school building for the last time, as a student. He was dressed differently from last week during the Exam, as part of the Hokage's campaign to instill more discipline in her forces, all Genin males had to get a buzz-cut, not a complete shave, but they could be no longer than two-inches on top, one-inch on the back and sides; Genin females, had the option, to cut it to shoulder-length, or they could put it up in either ponytails or buns. All Genin were required to wear the same basic outfit, a camouflage, single-piece jumpsuit, in blue, green, brown, or black patterns, and wear a single or dual ninja-tool holster, accessories were up to the individual.

Naruto chose to go with a blue, camouflage jumpsuit with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow and go with a dual holster, with his hitai-ate acting as a belt. The rest of his chosen ninja uniform, a balaclava which he made himself, to go over his hair in stealth missions, his blonde-hair would be a dead giveaway in those types of operations, on his brow, attached to the balaclava, he wore a visor that could be flipped up or down covering his eyes, that he could polarize at will, and could be used for telescopic or microscopic situations. While his Kidogan could handle that, he refused to rely on his dojutsu, taking wisdom from the other two clans who seemed to rely, on their own dojutsu, by doing the opposite. Besides, if he did use it, the visor would mask when he did, and give him an edge. Naruto wore his sleeves rolled up, showing off spiral tattoos on the interiors of both forearms, both housing his explosives, and his balaclava was thrown back, showing off his Genin, regulation haircut: a flattop, crew-cut. He rounded his new look out with a pair of flexible, combat boots, flexible meaning no steel toe, leather, fingerless gloves, and he wore, a Kevlar utility vest worn over the torso, which had the Uzumaki Spiral sown on his back, and the harness for a back-drawn, tsurugi blade, going down Naruto's spine, and finally, his Ten-Fist-Sword.

Also called, Totsuka-no-Tsurugi, which was not the sword's original name of course, that had been lost to time, but what Yugao had told him the original owner called it, when he showed it to her. It is three-feet long pommel to tip, and as black as the inside of a sack, and seemed to absorb even the light that struck it, reflecting nothing. It had no ornamentation, whatsoever, and the hilt met the base of the blade in a wide, isosceles triangle, but the sword was in one piece, because the blade seemed to crest out of the triangle, until it ended in the tip. The scabbard he carried with the sword, was four-and-a-half feet long and cut along the top, so the blade was suspended a good eighteen-inches above the bottom of the scabbard by the triangle section, or it would fall right through the bottom of the scabbard.

Naruto had tried to study the sword a few times since he awakened his Light Release, but no matter what he did, any form of EMR would be swallowed into the blade. Other than that, it acted like any normal blade, but it was insanely sharp. Yugao-oba-chan said, it was his through inheritance, but refused to tell him from whom, or from which side of the family it came. He assumed it came from his paternal family, but she refused to confirm or deny his assumption.

Naruto entered his class, he was the last to arrive today, and noticed the difference. These were still individuals, but they were individuals within the restrictions set forth by the Hokage. Sakura had chosen to go with the forest-green, camouflage motif, a single-holster for ninja-tools on her right hip, and her hair was styled into a bob. She kept the sleeves rolled down, and wore scarlet, fingerless gloves, and her own flexible, combat boots. Her forehead protector, was wrapped around her left bicep, but resting outboard on both of her thighs were a pair of sai. Naruto was reminded of a pink rose, with her hair spectra, and the thorns were truly deadly, Naruto had made her a shemagh, a sort of hooded scarf that she could wind around her hair for stealth missions, he had made it out of blood-red crimson, goat-wool. It was his graduation gift to her.

Hinata Hyūga wore the black cammies, was in a dual-holster configuration as Naruto, wore her hair in a loose bun, and her headband as a choker. Over the top portion of the jumpsuit was a leather hooded jacket, that had many pockets, and was zipped nearly to the top, with a gap for air to circulate. She also wore a pair of gloves, with small spikes on the backhand section that went from the wrist all the way to the second knuckle of each hand, and for her head though, it was mostly to give her the same edge as Naruto, he made her a balaclava with the same visor attachment, also presented to her for graduation.

Ino Yamanaka wore blue like Naruto, had a single-holster, and was one of the few who did not have to change her hair-style, since pony-tails were her original hair-style, and wore purple trainers, her nod to individuality, she was also wearing a purple shemagh, that was down around her shoulders at the moment. He had sent it to her through her father, Naruto did not want a fellow ninja's death on his conscience if he could do anything to prevent it. Because, if his own hair would be a beacon on a stealth mission, then her hair being almost white, had to be just as bad. _Inoichi must've had to order her to wear it as father and clan-chief._ The Nara in their midst, was wearing brown cammies and had simply cut off his ponytail to meet regulations, had his hitai-ate on his left arm, wore standard ninja sandals, and had a single ninja-tool holster. Choji chose green, and went completely bald, adding a happuri-style, forehead protector framing his face, with the dual holster design and wore ninja sandals.

Kiba also went with a forest-green camouflage, which he covered in a brown leather jacket, with a hood for Akamaru, wore a crew-cut, fade hair-style, which with his Inuzuka fangs, made him look down-right menacing, which he loved, of course. Kiba chose a single-holster, so he could add a set of nunchaku which had claws at the end, a graduation present from Naruto, it would add something extra to his Fang-over-Fang and other maneuvers of the Inuzuka taijutsu style. Though he would deny it, Kiba was moved to tears by the gesture, and had trained with them for hours on end, to get proficient with them. From what Naruto could see, Shino chose the black uniform, a faded-style cut, as well as ninja sandals, but could not tell anything else because the Aburame still wore his thick overcoat, and sunglasses. The Uchiha decided on black too, with a single-holster design, regular combat boots with the steel toe, which Naruto felt through his Jiton sensing. Sasuke had what is known as an Ivy-league hair-style, adding a vest-like Naruto to add the Uchiha crest to his wardrobe, and balanced his kunai holster with the , a truncheon used by police officers. Meant for combating swordsmen, with its fork, the officer could hook the blade out of the warrior's grasp, and the thick medal bar, could block all but the most powerful blows. Naruto shuddered when he felt the steel, within those steel-toed boots, _I give him three, maybe four months, then he'll be throwing those steel-toed monstrosities into the ocean. That or he'll be really irritable, because those things will be damn-near pinching his toes off._

Naruto walked over to Sakura, who was sitting with Hinata, and spoke to them both, "Hello, kunoichi-sans," he said with a cheeky grin, "how were your weeks leading up to today?"

They both just smirked at each other, before turning back to their friend, "Ano, my family didn't make much of a fuss, until they found out I was going to have Kunoichi of the Year status. That pretty much shut the Elders up, until they learned you beat me in all other categories," Hinata added grimly.

Naruto gave her a knowing smile, "I wouldn't worry too much about that, Hinata-chan," he cautioned her, "they still haven't announced the final results, one should never prepare for victory or loss when the war, is still not over. Believe it!"

Sakura looked puzzled, "but Naruto-kun, with your performance, surely you'll be Rookie of the Year, Anko-sensei, said something about the averages, not being a factor in determining class ranking."

"Don't you know by now, Sakura-chan," he admonished her, "nothing a ninja says should be taken completely at face value, you know?" Then said something cryptic, "Yugao-oba-san, says one should always look underneath the underneath, when dealing with ninja."

"But, Anko-sensei, is a friend, Naruto-kun," Sakura declared.

"I've said the same thing to her, and you know what she said," the two kunoichi shook their heads, 'no', "she said, it especially applied to friends, and even teammates, because one never truly knows anybody?"

They were about to talk more, when, Iruka entered the classroom, he was different today than normal, he appeared to be disturbed by something. He called the class to order, and his quiet, almost menacing aura quelled the newly minted Genin faster than a million shouts. He began, "I will begin by reading the class rankings, starting from Dead Last to Rookie of the Year, I will answer no questions until the end, so no interruptions," he ordered:

"Dead Last: Uzumaki Naruto – 27th"

Akimichi Choji – 26th."

That got quite a few expressions of surprise from the class, they thought his name would be the last one read. Iruka, however, went down the rankings steadily, and with as much passion as the stone faces on Hokage Rock, meaning none.

"Yamanaka Ino – 19th

Nara Shikamaru – 18th"

[17 – 6, Nameless]

"Aburame Shino – 5th

Inuzuka Kiba – 4th

Uchiha Sasuke – 3rd

Kunoichi of the Year:

Konoha no Sakura

Rookie of the Year:

Hyūga Hinata."

They all turned to look at the Dead Last, whom they all expected to get a much different result, he looked at them all, with a knowing expression on his face. Kiba, who had known Naruto longer, knew that look, it was the look Naruto used, when he was proven right in his jutsu experiments, it said, Naruto knew this was going to happen. It was neither a triumphant nor defeated expression, but it was the expected outcome. It was Hinata, who raised her hand first, and Iruka for the first time showed a benevolent expression on his countenance and pointed to the heiress, to ask her question. A question, he knew was coming, she stood, and in her gentle voice asked, "not that I am not extremely pleased, to be the first kunoichi ever awarded the title, Rookie of the Year, but I feel that I am usurping someone else's place on the roster. Naruto-kun, with his performance in the Genin Graduation Exam, should've been Rookie of the Year, and I, Kunoichi of the Year, so how is it that he languishes as Dead Last of this class?"

"Naruto-san, failed the Genin Graduation Exam, twice before coming to this class," came Iruka's answer, "so he deserves to be Dead Last, regardless of his scores on this Exam."

"What," Sasuke asked, "why would he deserve to be Dead Last, just because he failed twice?"

"Because, it wouldn't have been fair, otherwise," the blonde nemesis answered his castigant, "when I came to this class, I knew things about the Exam you didn't."

"Like what," Sakura asked, her new friend and long-term crush? Even Shikamaru was awake for this, because it was something he did not know, nor did he figure it out, and this was the first time since he was three and began playing shogi, that has ever happened.

"That there was another test buried beneath the entire Exam, something I had to swear to keep a secret before I would be allowed to try again," Naruto told her, "and what the class rankings are really for, and what they mean after the Academy."

"What test, I don't remember getting another test," Ino asked, Choji had even stopped eating too, as it dawned on him, if Naruto had not been in this class, then Choji would be Dead Last?

"And please enlighten us regarding the rankings purpose," bug boy entreated?

Naruto looked at their sensei, who shrugged his shoulders, "I'll answer the first question and let Iruka-sensei answer the second, once we know our Teams," he told them, to Iruka's nod, "the test I'm talking about is a stress test, to see how we handle the mild stress of the Genin Graduation Exam."

"Mild stress," the Nara in their midst scoffed, "Troublesome, that test caused me, to miss precious moments I could've use for cloud gazing?"

"Really," Naruto quirked an eyebrow, "then how much wool-gathering would you have done, if you knew the class averages, meant nothing in determining class rankings?" You could have heard a pin drop after that revelation, and it was at this point when Iruka decided to speak.

"It's time now, to announce on which teams you will all be placed," their sensei stated, they all remained quiet, now not knowing what would happen, they were off balance, which was kind of what the brass wanted to see, how they handled shocks to their system. Teams one through six, and their Jonin-sensei were gone through quickly, "Team Seven: Hyūga Hinata, Konoha no Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto; your Jonin-sensei will be, Yuhi Kurenai; Team Eight: Uchiha Sasuke, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino; your Jonin-sensei will be, Mitarashi Anko; Team Nine: is still in Rotation; Team Ten: Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Choji; your Jonin-sensei will be, Uchiha Shisui."

The class was not sure, if they should be happy or wary of the teams they had been placed on, they were still waiting for Naruto or Iruka, to tell them the purpose of the rankings. "Now, I understand you all wish to know how the Hokage, came up with these combinations for you all." As one, the class nodded their heads, except Naruto, since he already knew the criteria for choosing the teams, well for one team at least. "Firstly, but for two exceptions, all teams are chosen for balance, or harmony within the teams, usually using the three basic ninja skills: physical prowess, chakra usage, and kunai & shuriken acumen. The thought is that if you train together, you will be able to iron out or at least cover each other's weaknesses, to prop each other up in times of hardship. There are, but two exceptions to this criteria, the first is conditional, if there is a member in the same class from three specific clans: the Yamanaka, the Nara, and the Akimichi, also known as, the Ino-Shika-Cho Team, they are always placed on the same team, to promote good luck for the village, and so far, it's worked. There is even a superstition associated with those clans, that as long as all three remain strong and alive within Konoha, then the Leaf will thrive, but should even one of these clans leave or die out, then Konoha is doomed."

The three members of these clans represented in this class, had never felt so much pressure on themselves than they did at this moment. "What. A. Drag," the Nara in their midst growled!

"What is the Second exception to the balance rule, sensei," Sakura asked, but from the set of her shoulders, she may have already guessed the answer?

"The Second Exception, and this is the reason for the class rankings," Iruka confirmed, "the Rookie of the Year, the Kunoichi of the Year, and the official Dead Last of a class are always assigned to the same team, and they are the Flagship Team of Konoha. Whenever Konoha participates in a foreign Chunin Exam, they're always chosen to represent the Leaf in the foreign country. Right now, Konoha has two such teams in rotation, Team 9: with Hyūga Neji, the Rookie of the Year, last year, Shin Tenten, last year's Kunoichi of the Year, and the Dead Last for that class, Lee Rock, because their Jonin-sensei, Maito Guy, felt they weren't ready to become Chunin, and thus did not submit their names for consideration."

Choji raised his hand, and Iruka pointed at him to ask his question, "if Naruto wasn't here, for whatever reason, what would've happened to me, would I be the Dead Last on the team with Sakura-san and Hinata-san?"

Iruka shook his head, "you would have still been placed on the Ino-Shika-Cho team, and the next to last position would be chosen for their team," he answered.

Sasuke, finally caught up to what that meant, and voiced his realization aloud, "then that means, the class rankings…"

"… it means, Uchiha-san, that the class rankings, don't mean a damned thing," the Uzumaki finished for him.


	6. Waves

**Waves**

Getting Acquainted

Naruto and his new teammates were at Training Ground Seven, they were celebrating. They had just succeeded in the skills assessment test, their Jonin-sensei, Kurenai Yūhi, had put them through, to make sure they were ready to be Genin and could work as a team. Still, Naruto was taken by surprise, by how difficult the test had been. They had basically, played a real-world version of hide-and-seek, with their sensei being, It, they had to find her using any means at their disposal, they had until noon to capture her or they would be sent back to the Academy. Kurenai used any means at her disposal, to stay out of their reach, and out of captivity. It did not take very long for them to realize they were outclassed against the Jonin, while alone, so they decided to work together and trap their sensei.

Naruto used his explosives to drive their Jonin into a designated space, where Sakura and Hinata teamed up to contain her, until the third member could arrive. Naruto had used a lot of Flash Clones to plant the explosives, because they themselves could be explosives as Kurenai found out, all her shinobi had to do to make them explode, was cancel the Wind chakra, and they became unstable. They could even direct the force of the explosion, along any path, Kurenai knew she was being… herded, so to speak. She knew, but could do nothing about it, unless she wanted to meet the business end of a concussive blast, she had to allow herself to be maneuvered. _I'm far from caught, just because my movements can be controlled, doesn't make me controllable._

It was only when she reached the foot of a cliff and found herself boxed in by her new students, and a slew of Senko Bunshin, that she realized what their plan was. Hinata was on Kurenai's right, Sakura was on the left, and depending on where he truly was, Naruto was all around her. She looked up, thinking to go up the cliff-face but saw a batch of Narutos, peering down at her from the top of the fifty-three-foot ridge. She turned to face her students, if there was one thing Kurenai was not was a coward. They had to capture her to succeed, well succeed in the task, their use of teamwork to catch her meant they were ready to be Genin, but she was too excited to give-up now, without a real fight. Her new Genin Team closed in on the Jonin kunoichi, who was backing up even as they approached her, until she stood with her back to the cliff.

Secure in the knowledge that her back was covered, and that they could not come at her from behind, she set herself to fight them. She should have known better, than to underestimate her best-friend's cute nephew. He is a ninjutsu prodigy for a reason and one of his nature affinities was Earth. The two kunoichi approaching her just stopped and began to grin maliciously, she felt someone blow gently on her ear, which just happened to be one of her erogenous points. This caused her to jerk away from the feeling, when she felt the point of a kunai pricking at the side of her neck. She slowly slid her gaze to look in that direction, and smiling at her with a smug expression, was one of her precious people, even before he became her student. Naruto's upper-torso was sticking out of the cliff-face at about the same elevation as Kurenai's head, the rest of him seemed to be merged into the essence of the ridge itself, he was essentially an appendage of the mountain.

"Do you give-up, Kurenai-sensei," he asked with a challenge in his eyes?

Schooling her features to cover her surprise, she nodded stoically, "you have captured me, fair and square, good use of teamwork, which was all I really wanted to see for you to pass."

Naruto's grin became triumphant, as he seemed to slither down the side of the rock, until he was even with his natural height and stepped out of the mountain. Naruto dropped his balaclava, letting his buzzed blonde-hair breathe. Kurenai indicated for them to take a seat on the ground, "that was excellent teamwork and use of strategy, I would never have expected an attack from the cliff itself. At this time, I know you all know each other from the Academy, but I feel formal introductions are still in order."

"Will you please go first, sensei," Sakura asked, "so we can have an example of what you want?"

Kurenai smiled, "Of course," she assented, "my name is Kurenai Yūhi, age 27, I have just recently been promoted to Jonin, try to be gentle with me," she quipped, to their chuckles, "I like genjutsu, my friends… and," she looked resolutely ahead, casting a careful gaze at the shinobi among them, he did not seem to notice, but the other ladies narrowed their eyes, "someone else. I dislike perverts, those who see kunoichi as whores, and arrogance. My goal is to become the foremost genjutsu master in the world, to change public perception of kunoichi, and become a wife and mother, someday."

Kurenai pointed to Sakura, who smiled, "My name is Sakura, age 12, I like Anko-sensei, Naruto-kun, he's become a great friend, and taijutsu," her smile widened to a leer, and cast her eyes to all three of them, "you can be as rough with me as you wish." This caused Naruto and surprisingly, Kurenai to blush, "you two get your minds out of the gutter," Sakura lightly admonished them, before getting serious again, "my dislikes are men with fragile egos, the Harunos, and the way Naruto-kun is treated because of something beyond his control. My short-term goals include, becoming a taijutsu-bukijutsu (hand-to-hand & weapon) master, supplemented with a little ninjutsu, and to become a medical ninja. As for the long-term; they're pretty much the same as your last two goals, Kurenai-sensei."

Naruto grinned, "I can see living with Anko-oba-san has been a positive influence on your sense of humor, Sakura-chan." Sakura just laughed, but Naruto took his turn to introduce himself, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, age 13, I like Yugao-oba-san, Kiba, and all of my other friends," he said, looking at all three kunoichi to include, all three of them among that last one, "I cleared what I'm about to say yesterday with Lady Hokage, and two of you already know, but I dislike anybody who hates me for housing the Kyūbi no Kitsune, blaming me for the actions of another," he said in a rush, when Hinata did not gasp or otherwise show surprise at what he said, but whose expression remained the same. It was the other members of the team who acted with surprise.

The Hyūga heiress grinned, like a child caught doing something bad, her expression was pensive, as she toyed with her gloved hands, "I've known since he came to our class, he was interesting and cute, and well I had just perfected the use of the Byakugan, so I viewed him," she stated with a blush, pushing her forefingers together. The other kunoichi were staring daggers at her, for daring to look at their Naru… friend and student, like a piece of meat, "in the area of the body I was most interested in, I saw a massive amount of chakra, isolated from the rest of his chakra. I didn't know what it was, I still didn't until you told me, just now. I just knew that it was separate from you, and not a part of you," she looked up at the boy, "you were you; the chakra wasn't you, but now that you've told me, I feel loads better. The Nine-tails, you say," and Naruto was astonished, that she did not care that he was the container of the Fox?

Tears welled up in his eyes, but he aggressively dashed them away, and looked at her, "Thank you, Hinata-chan, for being so understanding."

He found Kurenai's hand massaging his thigh in comfort, and she said gently, "go on with your introduction, Naruto-kun."

Naruto just nodded, "my goals for my career, are to perfect my Bloodlines, become a chakra master in ninjutsu and genjutsu, a kenjutsu master, and a fuinjutsu master, like my mother and all other Uzumaki, even greater than the Fourth Hokage. My personal goals…" he said raising a finger, which brought the three kunoichi closer, "are a secret!" The three kunoichi face-fell to the earth, he smirked at them as they sat back up and gave him ugly expressions.

Kurenai pointed to the Hyūga to finish introductions, "My name is Hinata Hyūga, age 12, I like taijutsu, and I'm interested in learning sensory-genjutsu, I dislike my clan's attitude toward others, like get over it, we have funny eyes, big deal. I wish to abolish the caged-bird seal, and the Elder Hyūga advisors. My goals are as stated previously, and to become clan-chief, a mother and a wife, in no particular order."

Kurenai remained seated on the ground, and smiled, "This is our first day as a team, I know its traditional for me to allow you to go home to rest, after completing the Genin Skills Test, but I'm still too full of energy. There is one thing I want to do before we head toward home," she pulled four slips of paper out of the bodice of her dress, and continued, "these are chakra-paper. They're made from trees that were grown on pure chakra alone, they will tell me what kind of Nature Affinities you all possess." She passed the paper around to her students, "now, channel your chakra through the paper, I know that some of you have done this before, but do it anyway, please." Kurenai demonstrated as she spoke, channeling her chakra into the paper, which caught fire and became soggy, then to everyone but Kurenai's surprise formed into a vapor, "this indicates that I have an affinity for fire and water, and the kekkei genkai, boil release. That's a secret between the team, and only a few others know about it besides you, including your Aunt, Naruto, your sensei, Sakura, and of course the Hokage. I use it to aid my genjutsu in effectiveness, and as a poisoned mist. I'll demonstrate that later, now Naruto, please channel into the chakra paper."

Naruto complied, already knowing what it would indicate, he got the expected three primaries: the paper split in half, with one-side crumpling, and the other side crumbling into dirt; he got the three secondaries: a ball of plasma, then a magnetic-field, which then exploded; and a tertiary reaction happened: the paper began to emit a blinding white light. Naruto raised an eyebrow and spoke, "that last one is new, but not unexpected."

"What do they all mean, Naruto-kun," the Hyūga wondered, "that last one was beautiful."

"Well, the first three, were from my primary elemental affinities: Wind, Lightning, and Earth; then my secondary affinities: Plasma, Magnet, and Explosion release; the last one, is an S-ranked secret, but I will tell you in order to build trust, Hinata-chan, plus Kurenai-sensei, and Sakura-chan, already know. I have a kekkei tota: I discovered it over a month ago," he closed his eyes, sending Light chakra to his eyes, he opened them, and staring back at Hinata was Naruto's Kidogan, "I've named it Light release, or Kidoton." Naruto spent the next few minutes, explaining some of what he had learned over a month ago, with the Sandaime, and Yugao Uzumaki, keeping the parts concerning the Byakugan and the Sharingan to himself, but he did explain the Kidogan, and what he could do, with or without it. "So, while I do have telescopic and microscopic vision, unlike Hinata-chan's Byakugan, I do not have omni-vision."

"Wow," Hinata whispered, "you really are humble, Naruto-kun. You're Kidogan, can do so much more than the Byakugan, really the omni-vision is not a great loss, with your Flash Clones, you could have them deploy the Kidogan, then when they dispel you get the sensory data they acquired."

Kurenai got them back in order, "you're next, Hinata-chan," indicating the paper in the Genin's hand, "channel chakra into the paper, please."

Hinata did that, and the paper promptly crumpled, before bursting into flame, but the ashes promptly began to vibrate, and a high-pitched squeal like a microphone being too close to the speaker. Naruto promptly stubbed out the paper which immediately quieted the noise. Naruto looked at her, "no way," to say he was astonished was a profound understatement.

"What was that," Sakura asked in nervousness, which sounded like a little girl's voice, _Sakura-chan is so cute?_

"I'm only guessing here, but I'd say, that not only does, Hinata-chan have two chakra nature affinities, Fire and Lightning," Naruto opened, then looking at Kurenai for permission to continue, who nodded, "but I'd say our teammate here has her own kekkei genkai, it appears to be Vibrational Energy, which only makes her the most in tune organism in the world."

"What do you mean, Naruto-kun," Hinata asked, sounding a little scared?

"I'll be brief, I want to allow Sakura-chan her turn at the paper, then we need to go speak to the Hokage," they all nodded for him to continue. "Everything that exists has some form of vibrational frequency, this is because the molecules in these substances oscillate, each oscillation is unique to each substance, Hell light photons do it. Sound, when it propagates is described by this oscillation as frequency, which is how speech works, the applications of this development are staggering."

"Like what, Naruto-kun," Sakura asked?

"Well as I said, everything has a frequency, and if you can disrupt or otherwise control said frequencies, you can disrupt the molecular cohesion of any object, regardless of strength and durability," Naruto answered, "you could break apart hydrogen and oxygen molecules, which by themselves are unstable. Hell, the simplest applications are sound wave control, rendering your steps completely silent, or reverse it and you could produce or alter any sound you make. I don't think there are any limits," Naruto smiled encouragingly, "you'd be awesome, Hinata-chan. Well as awesome as you already are, you'd be even more awesome. Believe it!"

Hinata blushed and demurred, "why, thank you, Naruto-kun."

Sakura just picked up her paper and channeled her chakra into it; the paper grew soggy, then crumpled, but then coherent beams of light shot out in all directions, those that hit them stung like a bee-sting. "What the Hell are we, the Bloodline Squad," Naruto griped?

"Whoa," Kurenai stated, sitting three feet away from the rosette, "those laser bolts pack quite a pinch, and I imagine they could punch a hole through steel with enough practice!"

"What do you think that was," Sakura asked, looking at Naruto, who shrugged?

"I think it's time, we go see the Hokage," Kurenai told them, and they all just nodded. They stood and immediately began jumping through the trees, heading for their military and spiritual leader's residence. "By the way, Naruto-kun," Kurenai said disarmingly, then leaked her KI, but her voice became seductive, "the next time you blow on my ear, I'm gonna make you finish what you started," he looked at her in confusion, so she elaborated, "you're an adult now, so I'm just going to say it…" she blushed a red as deep as her namesake. "Blowing on my ear is the quickest way to get me to jump your bones," she said quickly. This caused him, and the other two kunoichi to match Kurenai's redness.

"Wait a minute," Naruto said, as he remembered something his aunt once told him about kunoichi! "I've lived with Yugao-oba-san long enough to know that while most women, would be coy about something like that, kunoichi, because they lie and deceive for a living, take a different approach to courtship. When they like a man romantically, they don't beat around the bush, and the bolder they are the more they like said man. The way you said that means…"

Kurenai smiled, "that I like you, and given the way they're looking at us, I'd say I'm not the only kunoichi on the Blood Squad who would like to have you between her legs." Naruto looked at the other two kunoichi and saw them look back, just as seductively, _oh no…_

* * *

Blood Squad: Confirmed

Tsunade was sitting back in her chair, with her eyes closed, massaging the bridge of her nose. Before her stood her newest headache, the latest incarnation of Team Seven. The sudden discovery of three bloodlines, would normally be seen as a boon to the Hokage, but when one of those who discovered their new kekkei genkai happened to be from one of the most temperamental and arrogant clans in Konoha. Who already have a kekkei genkai dojutsu, the discovery that their heiress has discovered another bloodline limit, will throw a monkey wrench in her efforts to curtail that clan's entitled culture. She knew what she had to do when she raised her head, "Tori-san," she called, and an ANBU with a bird mask appeared in front of Tsunade, kneeling.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Bird asked, her long, black ponytail resting on her back, the armor of the ANBU doing nothing to hide her voluptuous, female form?

"Please, go ask the clan-chief of the Hyūga to come to my office," Tsunade ordered.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the woman turned, and briefly they saw a pair of pure white-eyes, staring through the eyes of the bird mask at Hinata, who merely looked back impassively. There was a slight hint of an upturned, proud smile on her lips, before she shun-shinned away.

Tsunade keyed her intercom, "Natsume-san, will you please convene the Elders in my office, as quickly as possible, we have much to discuss."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," was the reply.

Then she turned to Sakura, "I may know what your bloodline is, Sakura-san. I once attended the Chunin Exams in Kumogakure, it was a show of goodwill, to let Raikage know, there were no more hard feelings for his actions from Konoha, at least, officially. During the Exam Finals, there was a boy, who demonstrated jutsu like you described from the chakra paper, they called it, Arashi no jutsu, or Storm Art, in common language. Luckily for the both of you," she indicated the two, Genin kunoichi, "you have a teammate on your team that is nearly a master of lightning chakra," the blonde woman stated pointing to Naruto, who smirked while looking at Sakura and Hinata.

When they looked at Naruto, he spoke, "I'll get you both started, at least with the exercises that helped me, but everybody is different when it comes to what they can learn. I'll let you two, create your own jutsu, like I have," he stated firmly. Naruto looked between the two, Genin kunoichi, looking back at him, who both nodded.

There was a knock on the door, "Come in," said the Hokage!

The door opened, and in walked another man, a Hyūga, this one had a tad more aristocratic bearing than most, he looked much like all of his clan, but wore very traditional, loose-fitting robes, and a brown haori with the Hyūga crest in the middle of the back. Hiashi Hyūga looked upon his daughter with emotionless eyes, but that was just a façade, for truly his daughters, were the light of his life: both were strong, Hinata had become the strongest fighter in the Hyūga, eclipsing even his nephew's strength. Who was considered the strongest Jūken fighter in the clan, and with her Jūhou-style, was able to defeat him. He was immensely proud that she had become, Rookie-of-the-Year for her class. He, along with every other graduate of the Academy, knew that the rankings there, were inconsequential, once they left school, but at the very least, with Neji of the Branch Family being Rookie-of-the-Year for his class, and Hinata being the same, it showed just how strong the Hyūga clan truly was.

"Did you call for me, Hokage-sama," the father asked his superior, and bowed formally?

Tsunade rose from her chair, stepping around her desk and returned his bow, with one just as deep. "I have, Hyūga-dono," she smiled, then indicated Hinata and the rest of her team, "it seems Konoha, has acquired two more kekkei genkai. You know, as we all do of Naruto Uzumaki and the three bloodlines, he has displayed for us," Hiashi nodded at that, "well, it seems his teammates have their own Bloodlines. Sakura-san has gotten the Kumo's coveted Storm release, I may open Konoha up to them again just to rub their noses in that fact." Hiashi and Tori's eyes narrowed at that thought, "but it's just a thought, it seems the Hyūga are evolving as well, because Hinata, in addition to the Byakugan, also has an elemental kekkei genkai."

"What," Hiashi asked, in shock?

"They did a nature affinity test today, and Hinata, it seems has two primary nature transformations: Fire and Lightning," that surprised Hiashi who looked at his daughter. She remained stoic on the surface, but she could feel his warmth for her, there was never a doubt in her mind that her parents loved her, and she returned it, but Hyūga were very private when displaying emotions, they only did it with their closest loved ones. Hinata may not follow all of the Hyūga's pretensions, but she viewed the stoic nature as an asset, her soft-spoken nature was a version of that stoicism, she practiced Zen meditation every morning to help her control her emotions. She even practices them during her katas for the Jūhou, while meditating, calling it moving meditation, and it helped her remain calm in battle. That she was willing to show her seductive side to Naruto, should have told him how strong her feelings for him ran. Tsunade continued, "the test also revealed a secondary element, that of utilization of vibrations, Naruto explained some of those applications to her, though with it being an unheard-of ability, she'll have to make any head way with it on her own."

Hiashi could not be more proud of his daughter, he very nearly beamed, the corner of his lips twitching a few times. Hinata and Tori caught it, and both of them could not wait to get home, and tease him about it behind closed doors, later. The fact that her father, was struggling so hard not to show such powerful emotions, almost made her want to run to him like an exuberant little girl, but she was a Hyūga and if he could remain quiet, she would too. She and Hanabi, were daddy's little girls after all, and his love was all they needed for now, though Naruto was fast approaching that level of feeling in Hinata's book. "Well, the Elders may have an issue with this, they'll see her as an abomination to the clan's future. They're such fanatics about clan traditions, any deviation tends to turn off their heads," he said sourly, "I for one, see it as a sign that our clan, has so much more potential than we allow ourselves to realize." Hiashi grimaced, "which means, unfortunately, we don't have anyone who can teach her about her nature chakra, her fire usage, which she uses in conjunction with her taijutsu-style, she had to learn on her own."

"May I speak, Father," Hinata asked respectfully, she goes on at his nod? "Naruto-san, has had quite a bit of experience uncovering and learning bloodlines of this type. He has graciously offered to train me in the use of my lightning chakra, and I believe, since he is also the practitioner of a new chakra release, Plasma release, he would be the best person to shepherd me in exploring this new nature."

Hiashi scratched his chin, as he thought over his daughter's proposal, he also eyed the young man. He, like the rest of the shinobi council knew Naruto was not the Kyūbi. That was not what he was worried about, it was letting his daughter, whom he was not blind to the fact that she had feeling for the shinobi, be alone with an older teenage boy. Hiashi sighed, then disappeared and when he reappeared, he had a chakra-coated index and middle-finger poised over the boy's heart, "as long as the only 'exploring' he does with my daughter is regarding ninjutsu," he growled, "or I'll reduce the Uzumaki by one, here in Konoha, understood, boy?"

Naruto had not flinched, as soon as the man began moving, he had activated his EM Field, "you have my word, Hyūga-sama," Naruto stated, "that except for sparring, I will lay no finger on Hinata-san, that she doesn't allow, nor will I ever abandon her." Naruto looked down causing Hiashi to look down as well, and was shocked, because the boy had a glowing spear hand, aimed at Hiashi's own chest. Each of them could kill the other with just a touch.

Hiashi laughed humorously, which shocked not only his daughter and Bird, but everybody in the room. The Hyūga's and even Hiashi's emotionless exterior was quite legendary, except for when he found his daughter in the clutches of a kidnapper, he has not even shown his emotions to enemies. He has always told his daughters and even his nephew, that your emotions were one of the few, if only things on the battlefield, one could control. He looked at Naruto as his face returned to impassivity, "I like you, kid, and I wouldn't have accepted anything less from you when I attacked you," he explained, "anybody who is willing to stand-up for those he cares about, even against others who care about the same person, is okay in my book. I can tell that you are a man of your word, and I'm glad you will be there to protect my daughter, in whatever capacity you both agree upon."

Naruto smiled, "Thank you, Hyūga-sama, and as you guessed I will protect, Hinata-chan, because I suspect that if the situation demands it, she'll do the same for me. I can't think of anybody else I'd want covering my six, other than Sakura-chan, Kurenai-sensei, or Kiba Inuzuka, than Hinata-chan."

"I must say, this is a lot different than how I anticipated you would react, Hiashi-dono," Tsunade commented, "I thought you'd be harsh and demanding like you are in council meetings."

"Don't read too much into that, Tsunade-tono," Hiashi replied stoically, "I wear many hats, right now, I am wearing the delighted clan-chief hat, when Hinata gets home, I will put on the proud father's hat. However, the next time a council meeting is convened, I will have on my politician hat, where I will rub Mikoto-tono's nose in the fact that my clan, can now boast two bloodline limits, of which, hers can only brag of one. Which is useless for reading kekkei genkai," he finished with a pompous air that was powerful, but also fake.

Sakura giggled, and tapped Hinata on the shoulder, who turned, "You're dad is so cool, Hinata-chan."

Hinata had a small smile bloom on her face, "he's alright," and Hiashi winked at her, but she maintained her best Hyūga bearing to make him proud.

At this moment, the door opened, and three people walked into the Hokage's office. There were only four people allowed to just walk into the Hokage's office without knocking, five if one counted the Daimyo. Three of those people lived in Konoha, the Konoha Elders, they were the only three people, living in Konoha, who could question the Hokage's decisions. At the moment, the position of the Elders were held by Sarutobi Hiruzen, Uchiha Mikoto, clan-chief of the Uchiha and Commissioner of the Uchiha Police Force, and Teuchi Ichiraku, the owner and proprietor of Naruto's favorite restaurant, Ichiraku Ramen, which was now under full-time management of his daughter, Ayame, when he was fulfilling his official duties as an Elder.

Mikoto Uchiha, is a fair-skinned woman with long, straight black hair and bangs hanging on either side of her face, to roughly frame her cheeks and black eyes. She wore a simple, dark-purple yukata top, with a red-plum hakama, and a light-yellow obi worn over it. She was Kushina's best friend and teammate, even if they started out as bitter rivals, they were put on the same team together, with Tsunade being their sensei, and their feelings for each other as they progressed together in skill and power, grew until they became as inseparable as sisters. They had hoped their children, as they grew would become friends, but with their personalities being so different, there was never any hope of that. Naruto, it seemed was still looking out for Mikoto's son, however, his little lesson about the class ranking yesterday, seems to have sunk Sasuke into a form of depression. Her ex-husband, the former leader of the clan, used to go on and on toward Sasuke, about the importance for getting top-marks in his class, to always be seen as superior to the other members of his class.

Naruto it seemed, understood instinctively that Sasuke was heading down the wrong path, in his shinobi thinking, and endeavored to knock that kind of thinking out of her son's head. Today was her son's Genin skills test with Anko-chan, where if he was wise, he would start to see that Fugaku's way of thinking, toward his fellow Leaf ninja was not what made a ninja strong. It just isolated them, until at some point in time, nobody wanted to work with them, nor even hire their services, because their attitude made it impossible to work with them. They either died penniless, or just died, because they thought they were more skilled and powerful than anybody else. Naruto probably thought it was just a windup, but it was the type of prank that made people's thinking change, either for better or worse.

Teuchi Ichiraku, today, was wearing his chef's uniform, which meant he was summoned during business hours at his ramen stand, and if one looked at the time, they would see that since it was just after midday, this was the peak hour for the lunch rush at the stand. Naruto felt guilty about that, but resolved to eat double his usual portion, when he went there today, once he was let go from his team. Teuchi did not seem very perturbed though, he seemed to be taking his summons in stride, which if Naruto knew his friend, was not a façade. Unlike most politicians, which the Elders, very much were, Teuchi-san wore his emotions on his sleeve, and while he was deferential to the Hokage, was not one to couch what he said behind political rhetoric. Something that Tsunade found, rather refreshing, because even her sensei and student, as informal as they could be with her, tended to have trouble getting to the point in some discussions.

The three Elders, stopped in front of their boss and bowed, which she returned, "what is this all about, Tsunade-sama," Teuchi began, "it's rare for all three of us to be summoned during the day?"

Tsunade smiled and waved to the Genin team in the room, "it seems Konoha is being rewarded further, by the development or acquisition of two," she held up two fingers, "count them, two more genso no kekkei genkai (elemental bloodline limits).

"For variety's sake, let us hope Naruto has been left alone by Fate, and the lucky recipient of these boons, is one of these two lovely young ladies," Sarutobi surmised?

"You are correct, Sandaime-dono," Hiashi stated, pointing to the kunoichi, "in addition to the Byakugan, it seems the might of the Hyūga will grow even more than it already has, my daughter has two primary affinities: Fire and Lightning, and a new never before seen secondary affinity: Shindōton, or Vibration Release." Then pointing at the rosette kunoichi, who blushed, Hiashi continued, "and it seems Kami has decided to tweak the noses of Kumogakure, and award us with Arashi no jutsu, the power they seem determined to keep to themselves, by giving us this quite formidable young kunoichi."

"Damn it," Mikoto exclaimed, "I guess I'm going to have to hear you gloat like a maniac during the next council meeting, aren't I?"

Tsunade sighed, "he practically assured us of that, Mikoto-chan, a few minutes ago," then a gleam of malice appeared on the Hokage's visage, "unless I make it an S-ranked secret, like I did for another elemental bloodline, that was discovered within the last six-months." Hiashi's eye began to twitch, then Tsunade sighed, "no that wouldn't be a judicious use of my power as the Hokage, but I will make it Need-to-Know, and as for now, until they can learn to use it in combat, only the people in this room and those they live with, have a Need-to-Know what our kunoichi are capable of," then hardened her eyes, and growled, "besides _whoring_."

Every kunoichi and the shinobi as well, hardened their eyes at that, all of them have had friends and relations, who are, or had been kunoichi, and the public stereotype regarding their battle prowess was one that was hard to shake. To be fair, there are such things as seduction missions, which were only given to kunoichi, the goal being to get pregnant and bring the child back to a home village, usually to acquire certain bloodlines and traits for said village. Though it was rare for such a thing to happen these days, even Cloud, who were greedy for genetic strength, would rather resort to kidnapping than send their kunoichi to foreign territory, from which for one reason or another they may not return. Plus, they would be down a fighter until the kunoichi went into labor, and trained back to fighting shape after the birth, if they even wanted to come back, they could have fallen in love with their baby, which happened a lot. For this reason, these, and assassination missions, were the only missions that any ninja may outright refuse, and any reason could be used, from personal, to ideological, or even repugnance of such a mission.

There was a buzz on the Hokage's intercom, who reached over to it, pressing the talk button asked, "Yes, Natsume-san?"

"Excuse me, Lady Hokage," her receptionist replied, "but there are several jonin out here, to turn-in their team skills assessments."

"Very well, as soon as I dismiss those here in my office, send them in, please," Tsunade ordered?

"Hai, Lady Hokage." Natsume answered.

Tsunade looked up at those in her office, getting ready to be dismissed, "All except, Kurenai-san, and the Elders are dismissed, the Elders may leave if they wish, or stay, it's up to them." All of the Genin bowed to their sensei, then the Hokage and each of the Elders, Sakura-chan and Naruto-kun, bowed to Hiashi-sama, who as soon as she came close to him, fell beside his daughter, placing a paternal hand on her shoulder, filed toward the door, opening it and left. Of the Elders, only Teuchi elected to leave, he could have stayed, as an Elder he had the clearance to be there for anything the Hokage allowed him to be, but ninja business was ninja business, he would not understand the significance of what he heard even if he stayed. Even if both his fellow Elders, would have explained it to him, meetings of this sort would go a lot faster without him, but he was learning a great deal about Konoha he never even suspected, and his ignorance was vanishing every day.

As soon as they all left, several Jonin came through the office door and fell into line before the Hokage. Anko came in, and upon seeing one of her three best friends already there, came over and threw a familiar arm over her shoulders. Anko had a playful grin on her face, and whispered, "So, Kurenai-chan, did you confess your feelings to your blonde-haired dream," she asked?

Kurenai, who knew something like this was coming, when her friend came over to her grinning, like a cat that ate the canary, answered with a quirked eyebrow, and, "is that really all you wish to know, Anko-chan," Kurenai toyed with her? "Don't you wish to know if you'll still have a roommate, after today," Kurenai leered, "remember, if she failed my exam, she has to go back to her parents, since she'd still be a minor?"

Anko grinned, not being deflected in the slightest, "I have faith in my unofficial student, Kurenai-chan," then stepping back, and looked at her friend, "not to mention your relaxed state indicates you have no bad news to report. Which there would be, if you had to send your prospective boyfriend, back to the Academy, and because he's blown all three of his chances at Graduation, he would be disenrolled from the ninja program. Which means, if he wanted to be a ninja, he'd have to leave and become an enemy ninja, or a Ronin," Anko reminded her friend, "and neither of those two, are allowed within the village, unless it's to compete in the Chunin Selection Exam. He passed, which means Sakura passed," she inferred, "plus I saw them leaving as I entered, remember? They didn't have the dejected looks of those who'd lost everything they worked for; they were happy. Now, quit stalling, you only do that when you have something juicy to report!"

Kurenai sighed, "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you'd be able to see through my dissembling; you were one of T&I's best interrogators after all." Kurenai looked around, noting that they had some space between them and the rest of their colleagues, Shisui was conversing with his clan-chief, and everybody else was consumed by their own talk. She lowered her voice anyway, "I was lured into a trap and my new Genin had me pressed against a cliff, I was boxed in, Naruto even had the forethought to line the top of the ridge with Flash Clones. He's got a head for strategy, that's for sure, anyway, I turned around to get ready to fight them," Kurenai answered, then with a smile of affection, "by this time I had no problems passing them, they fulfilled the requirement for teamwork, but I was still too full of adrenaline to stop then. Plus, it would be a good way to determine their taijutsu skill," Kurenai added, before going on, "I had my back to the cliff, thinking that they couldn't come at me from behind and surround me."

Anko smirked, Naruto had been pretty much raised by all of them, he had learned to be sneaky from her, and she had taught him his Earth techniques, "He used the Hidden in Stone technique, didn't he," she sounded proud of herself?

"It looked similar, yes, though I think he may have modified it a little," Kurenai answered, "he didn't just seem to be coming out of the cliff-face, he appeared to have become, a part of it, like he had been the rock he came from." Kurenai blushed mightily, "I didn't even feel him use his chakra, when he blew on my ear, it was all I could do not to turn around and snog him," her face was flushed as she finished her story for the events of her test. "I didn't kiss him, for two, three, no four reasons," she grinned, while pushing her tongue between her teeth, "firstly, it's against the military laws of Konoha for a student and teacher to be in a relationship; secondly and thirdly, Hinata and Sakura both like him; and lastly, he had a kunai pressed to my throat, that's not the best time to be pressing romantic advances on him."

Anko chuckled and nodded, "maybe, but then that might have added more spice to the situation."

Kurenai scoffed, "if I need spice in a relationship that has not yet, and may never be realized, then I should just give up now, and spare myself the dramatic break-up."

Anko nodded sagely in agreement, and answered blandly, "you may have a point there, especially with two rivals in your way, not to mention, the law against fraternization between sensei and student. You could be stripped of your Jonin status for that, most don't come back from that," Anko reminded her friend.

"I may not be able to do anything now, but he wants to learn genjutsu, and be a chakra master," Kurenai informed her friend, "that means time alone, together and there are plenty of ways to entice him, without either of us breaking the law. As for my two rivals, well they're my teammates and students first," Kurenai stated fiercely, "that relationship comes before the first one, and we may also become friends! Anyway, the only one who may be my biggest obstacle is the Hyūga heiress, she's also expressed an interest in genjutsu, but only sensory-genjutsu, which is usually the first section most people learn. They'll also be spending time alone with Naruto, so he can train them in lightning-chakra, and help them research another of their chakra natures, that I'll let Sakura-chan tell you about in your apartment." At Anko's questioning look Kurenai answered quickly, "its Need-to-Know, and right now, nobody else in this office has a Need-to-Know, except you," Anko nodded at her friend's assertion. "As for your question, the answer is yes, I did confess to him, sort of," Anko gave Kurenai a confused look, so she answered, "I told him that blowing on my ear, though only for specific people, which I left out," she grinned wickedly, "was the quickest way to get me into bed."

Ah-ha-ha-ha," Anko laughed out loud, "I remember when another man did that to you in market square," Kurenai's eyes went cold as Anko continued to recall that event, "you placed a genjutsu on him so demonic that he defecated in his britches!"

Kurenai developed a smile that was all teeth, "as I said, only certain people will get me into their bed when they do that, everyone else, will feel my wrath!"

Anko leered, as she continued to probe her friend's resolve, "certain people," she needled?

Kurenai just grinned, "well, only one person at the moment, and it's been that way for over a year, since his last birthday."

"Let me take a wild guess, he's got blonde-hair, like the sun, eyes like the blue-sky, and is a ninjutsu prodigy," Anko assumed, "but is interested in genjutsu, probably to challenge himself. Am I right?"

"You are," the Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha confirmed, they were still whispering, though the emotion Kurenai displayed was pure and fiery!

"All right," the Hokage raised her voice, calling the meeting to order, all conversations ceased as she did so, "I will call the Team number and that team's Jonin will say if they passed or failed their Genin Team, understood?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," they all answered, in a crisp military manner!

Tsunade began, "Team One?"

"Fail," Matsuoka-Jonin stated.

Team Two," the Hokage asked?

"Fail," said Duri Maki-Jonin.

"Team Three," asked the Hokage?

Yoshi Shimizu sighed in disappointment, "Fail."

"Don't be discouraged, you'll get another chance if you want it," Mikoto reminded her.

"Team Four," Tsunade Senju asked?

"Epic Fail," Hayashi-san growled, then turned to the Uchiha matriarch! "I'm not trying to insult your son in anyway, Uchiha-sama," he stated with a bow, "but while your son is handsome, I cannot understand the fierce loyalty he inspires in his fan-girls. They were all so concerned about getting to be with Sasuke-san, they didn't even try to help each other." He turned to the Hokage, "I know it's not my place, but they don't even deserve to be sent back to the Academy, they would be a disgrace to kunoichi if they passed."

"Noted," Tsunade stated, "Team Five?"

"Failed," Kyo Sato asserted.

"Team Six," she asked?

"Failed," Sung-Min Kim declared!

Tsunade looked at Kurenai, and asked, "Team Seven?"

"Pass," the crimson-eyed Jonin declared, then added, "and I'd officially like to add the Title: Chi no Buntai (Blood Squad) to our team's official file."

"Whatever for," one of the other Jonin questioned?

Kurenai smiled, "for reasons that the Hokage and the Elders, only need to know, at the moment."

"Team Eight," Tsunade moved forward, to get this done?

"Passed," Anko smiled, "they're now my personal playthings," she stated rubbing her hands together. The rest of the Jonin, except Kurenai, shuddered at the thought of Anko being in charge of children.

Tsunade just grinned, "Team Ten?"

Shisui stated, "They Pass, though barely, my biggest headache, will be to get that damn Nara to do anything but stare at the sky all the time."

"I had one on my squad, when I was a Team-sensei," Mikoto advised, "you've gotta put the fear of God into them, otherwise you'll never get anything, but the bare minimum from them."

"Thanks, Oba-san," Shisui nodded!

"That concludes this part of the meeting," Tsunade declared, "those of you unable to pass a team, please go to the mission office and you'll pick up your next assignments."

After they all left and the three with a team remained, waiting to hear what the Hokage had to say, "Well, this has been a momentous day," she said. "The next Chunin Exams are in six-months, they'll be here in Konoha," she reminded them, "now don't push them any further than absolutely necessary, but I'd like for Konoha to put up a good showing. Now, Kurenai, your name change for your team is approved," and so saying the Hokage wrote out the new name on the form, that read: **[BLOOD SQUAD: CONFIRMED]**.


	7. Breaking Waves

**Breaking Waves**

Progression

For the last four months, Blood Squad, besides training, has been doing D-ranked missions, basically chores around the village. Everything from painting fences, tilling gardens, watching children for a noble clan, and catching Tora missions, the cat owned by the Daimyo of Fire's wife, who seems to have a penchant for escaping from its mistress, and almost always finds its way to Konoha, where various Genin try to catch the fiendish feline. The Genin did not really mind, D-ranks were decent pay for the work they had to do, and with Naruto's Senko and Kage Bunshin, a day long D-rank for most Genin would only take a few hours for Blood Squad. Which allowed them more time to train together, or do more D-ranks for the day, but the team was getting anxious to test themselves, against real enemies that were trying to kill them. They were walking toward the Hokage Mansion, and the Genin were hoping to get their first C-ranked mission. Kurenai looked at her students, Naruto and Sakura were holding hands, chatting amiably with Hinata-chan, and reflected back on the last four months.

_Flashback_-Four Months Ago

Naruto's progress in Senko Bunshin, allowed him to discover how to make them using normal, non-elemental chakra. This allowed him to make them more quickly, and in greater abundance than before, up to two-thousand clones at a pop. All with the same capabilities as the original Flash Clone technique, including the durability, but most importantly, it meant he could teach his jutsu to anybody who wished to learn it, or anybody he wished to teach.

The first person he taught it to was also the first person to ever show him love, his Aunt Yugao, who expressed interest early on for him to teach her. He had already taught her, his True Transformation technique, and Surrogate Substitution, now with Flash Clones, he felt he had sufficiently paid her back for taking him in when he was six, now he could just be her nephew. "The trick, Yugao-chan, is in this hand sign," he told her as he demonstrated, he put his thumbs against each other, and allowed his other fingers to fall naturally at the junctions of the fingers and the rest of his hands. The formation produced a natural-looking cylinder, that looked exactly like an eye-socket, "I call this, the oculus," he said, making sure she had it down before going on, he raised it to about the height of his chest, "what you do is project your chakra through the center," as he demonstrated through actions what he spoke about, "what happens is your chakra, gathers the photons you need to put together the clones, you'll notice a slight dimming in the immediate area around your projected path, then," the dimming he mentioned occurred, then just before total darkness, there was a flash of bright light, "voila, your very own twin."

Yugao was a good student, and of course, had more experience with chakra than her nephew, so she only needed the bare minimum of instruction, before she was able to pull off the jutsu like the professional she was. That did not stop her from jumping in celebration, when she made her first Flash Clone. "I did it, oh, Kami-sama, I did it," when she looked back at her perfect clone!

Naruto looked at her smiling, he felt proud that he was able to teach her something else, she has taught him everything else he knew, including what it felt like to know love. Yugao-oba-san, was the closest thing he had to a mother, and though he called her Aunt, she was his mother in every way except name. His expression grew serious, and he spoke, "I recommend starting out by using half your chakra," Naruto suggested, "that way, you'll know exactly how many you can make, before chakra exhaustion sets in," Yugao nodded, and her clone dispelled in another flash of light. Naruto looked lost in thought, as he imparted his own experiences to his Aunt, about Senko bunshin no jutsu, "I can make them using other forms of EMR, so I'm covered on stealth missions, but if you need to be stealthy, I recommend making them out of line of sight of your prey, or they'll give you away. I would also, suggest learning the Kage bunshin no jutsu, as a supplement to Senko bunshin no jutsu. They could be used interchangeably and only differ in durability to the latter," Naruto noted, then with a smile, added, "I'm gonna trade teaching this to the Hokage, to learn it for myself, I think they would be totally useful for screwing up an enemy's confidence." His Aunt just laughed at his wicked side, the feeling he had for her being his mother was absolutely reciprocated in her heart, if in the future she was lucky enough to have children, in her mind she has already been a mother. Naruto may not have come from between her legs, he was still very much her boy, Yugao prayed to Kami, and her sister, every time she slept, and thanked them for giving her, a son.

After teaching his Aunt, he followed through on trading the Senko bunshin for the Kage bunshin, to the Hokage, she even allowed Naruto to learn the Bunshin Dai-bakufu, now he had two clone techniques that could explode in an enemy's face. He practiced with them so much, he not only could make them silently, but even eliminated the telltale plume of smoke, and the kicker came when both sets of clones began to make each other. Naruto in addition to his other training, started practicing formation training, with one or the other types of clones, at first, but later, he began to mix the two types of clones together, creating a real-life version of the shell game. Naruto got so good at creating clones that he could recreate even his own smells, enough that he could fool inu-nin, even the Inuzuka breeds, which had lived with that clan so much, they had adopted their human partner's reasoning abilities.

Naruto's other training proceeded apace, and he along with his teammates grew in strength, daily. Naruto created two invisibility techniques, the first one was C-ranked, he calls it, Bluff of the Blind-man. It follows the principles of Taming the Wave, by shunting all electromagnetic radiation around the user, it does not redirect into anybody's eyes, so the observer cannot see, conversely neither can the recipient, because it redirects all light away from the recipient, even that which was directed to his or her eyes. Naruto used it to practice using his other senses, and not to rely just on his eyes, this was a skill he taught his teammates. It was also where they found out that Kidoton, does cripple the effectiveness of the Byakugan, Hinata when he used it on her, was just as blind as his other three teammates.

The second technique, which he called, Unseen, followed the principles of Breaking the Spectrum. Naruto compressed the waves of EMR that struck him, but allowed the photons to retain their energy, since cells need the energy from the photons to conduct their operations, but as they rebounded from his body, he force the waves to stretch almost flat, beyond even a radio wave's wavelength. This allowed Naruto to be invisible, truly invisible, he stood next to Hinata and her father for an hour, without revealing himself, and Itachi Uchiha could not see him either, he could have stolen anything, even jutsu ideas if he wanted to, but he kept himself to a strict Code of Ethics when using his Kekkei Tota. He did not peep on women in the hot springs, nor use his alternative visual spectrum to see through their clothes. He asked Hinata about her clan's rules of privacy, since all of them had a dojutsu that could aid them in seeing through solid objects. Naruto even spoke to the Elder Uchiha, about when they use the Sharingan while in the clan compound or sparring with each other. The Elders had been briefed on Naruto's Light Release, after he became a Genin.

The first month of Blood Squad's training was spent on a mixture of chakra control, physical exercises, that paled in anything they ever worked on at the Academy, and team activities. Chakra control was essential for any ninja, from Academy students to the Hokage, to even Sandaime Sarutobi-sama, every ninja practiced some form of chakra control. The version of chakra control they learned at the Academy, regardless of whatever variation was devised from it, is considered, the most basic exercise in the regimen. The more control one had over one's chakra, the more powerful and varied the capabilities of the ninja, whether it was for ninjutsu, genjutsu, or even taijutsu, a ninja's power came, not from the amount of chakra one had, but from controlling that chakra.

The next day after the Genin Skills Exam, Kurenai introduced them to vertical walking. They returned to the cliff from the day before, and she demonstrated, "I've seen Yugao do that, but she would not teach it to me," Naruto groused.

"Of course not," Kurenai grinned from beside Naruto, she was using a Flash Clone, which Naruto had taught to her, Anko, and Hana-chan, Sakura and Hinata did not yet have the chakra reserves for either of Naruto's clone techniques. "You know as well as I do that it's illegal for anyone to teach these techniques to Academy students, only Genin are allowed to learn them, per military law."

Naruto still grumbled, "I know, but it's not fair," he sulked.

There was a smack to the back of the head for Naruto, from Kurenai, "did you want some cheese with your whine, Naruto," she growled, getting in his face? "You're an adult now, and adults don't bitch and whine about fair or unfair, they suck it up and get on with completing the exercise! Now, stop moping around like an Uchiha and get going with the exercise," Kurenai ordered, "and no clones while training with your team, I won't let you rub it in their faces that you have an advantage they don't, understood, Genin Uzumaki?"

Naruto thoroughly reamed, popped to attention and bowed, "Hai, Yūhi-sensei," he bellowed, before bowing again, "my apologies, Yūhi-sensei, for wasting our time with this behavior, please forgive me?"

"Get on with it, Genin Uzumaki," Kurenai barked!

"Hai, Yūhi-sensei," Naruto barked back, then turning he hurried up to the cliff, and put his foot on it and began practicing the exercise! Kurenai watched him go, her gaze flicking occasionally up and down his body, and she felt a trickle run down her face from her nose, which she quickly wiped away. It would not do for the one she just chewed-out to look back and see her with a nosebleed.

They spent the first month of their fellowship, practicing vertical walking, and Naruto never complained again, he also took to heart what his sensei had about having an advantage his teammates did not have. As a method to keep himself humble, he followed Kurenai's order, even after that day, during chakra control training, it was Naruto the original that trained his chakra. He practiced daily and even when not with his team, the true-Naruto practiced walking up and down the side of the Uzumaki Main house walls. The chores he did around the house, that required vertical walking helped him train it as well, like washing the exterior windows, or touching up the paint where the wood was showing, were all him.

The Flash and Shadow Clones practiced his ninjutsu, the forms of his taijutsu, kenjutsu, and the calligraphy for his fuinjutsu. The Flash Clones practiced sparring, empty-handed, or weapon to weapon, while he was not trying to become a weapons master like Sakura, he may come across opponents wielding these weapons, and the best way to learn to fight against them was to learn to fight with them. His weapon of choice was the sword he wore on his back, to which he had added a seal from within the Uzumaki archive to his sword and ninja tool pouch. The seal allowed the kunai and shuriken in the pouch, along with his sword to be replicated perfectly when Naruto made either type of clone. He practiced with his sword every day, against his Aunt when she was home, or against Senko Bunshin, morphed into varying body types, from the really large and powerful, to small and quick. Which is also how he trained his empty-handed, and kunai-taijutsu techniques, after team training of course. Kage bunshin trained his ninjutsu, and calligraphy.

Since neither bunshin type could aid him in training his physical body, he waited to train that way until he was with his team, which through encouragement helped all three of the Genin become closer. Such was Naruto's skill with fuinjutsu, that he crafted five sets of gravity, resistance, and pressure seals, and gifted them to all four of his teammates and Kiba, with both of their sensei's permission of course. These seals, when they had chakra added to them, applied just the right amount of g-forces, resistances, and atmospheric pressures per square inch of their body, to make one extremely uncomfortable, but not be detrimental to one's health. They were self-adjusting, so as soon as one's body became adjusted to the current level, it went up, which not only aided in maximizing their physical training, it helped them in chakra control, because one had to send a precise amount to one's feet to stay on the cliff. When the level of the seals went up, the Genin had to adjust the level of chakra to their feet to compensate. Naruto, gave Kurenai-sensei a set, to encourage her not to stagnate but to keep the fire and hunger in her eyes, and to keep training her body to maintain a balance between her Yin and Yang chakra, making her already potent genjutsu, even more powerful.

This helped them increase the Yang chakra as well, the type of chakra governing the physical body. Chakra had to be balanced, and there needed to be as much Yin chakra growth as there was Yang. Yin governed the mental and emotional energy of a person, so to compensate for the physical exertions, for Yin, Kurenai introduced them to meditation, and Hinata contributed to this training by teaching them all, Zen meditation. Also, every Friday and Saturday, to give their bodies a chance to recuperate, Blood Squad spent their days in the library, at first, Naruto remained steadfastly in the physical sciences, where he also directed Hinata and Sakura, to get them started on learning about their elemental bloodlines. That was not the focus of Kurenai's intent for bringing her team to the library.

The Yin half of chakra was a mixture of both mental and emotional energy, and both had to be cultivated in order for Yin to grow. She explained it to them with a metaphor, where chakra was represented by a tree with branches and leaves. Yang was the trunk that was strong and brought nutrients with it from the ground, and Yin was the branches and leaves, the branches worked with the trunk to hold up the leaves, so they could collect the sunlight of wisdom and experience, and knowledge itself was the water added so the tree could remain alive, hence the library trips. This was essential, for anybody who wanted to learn to use genjutsu, of which, at least two of her students had expressed interest, but Kurenai wanted all of her students to be at least familiar with the illusionist art, even if it was just learning to break them. So, she steered them, gradually away from the physical sciences, to the social subjects of learning. Specifically, psychology, philosophy, cognitive studies, including literature, history and the humanities.

Naruto kept his word to his teammates, about getting them started learning to tap into their lightning chakra. The first exercise Naruto taught them, was of course the one taught to him by Kakashi, before he left for the capitol to help guard the Daimyo. Basically, lighting a light bulb with just his chakra. He guided the kunoichi, through raiton chakra manipulation training but left them to their own devices, to create their own jutsu. Their team sensei also helped the ladies, by training Sakura and Hinata in their water and fire manipulation, respectively, by the end of that first month they had the first leg of their chakra manipulation exercises down. Training them, helped him remember the basics of elemental chakra manipulation as well, so on the days he helped them train their raiton chakra, when he got home, he trained his other elemental affinities. This helped him remain in touch with his own basics, the kunoichi were quite surprised when he suggested the practice of crocheting to get their dexterity up for casting ninjutsu. Kurenai said it will aid them in genjutsu casting, too. As for their kekkei genkai, once they all had the basics of their primary nature transformations, they understood the basics of their secondary transformations, too.

All of them, attended the human anatomy classes for medical ninja, but Hinata and Naruto attended only to make certain techniques they were working on, more deadly, since they targeted certain organ systems. Since all three Genin used lightning chakra, they became interested in the nervous system, a judicious use of raiton-chakra could sere certain nerve-endings shut, causing various effects to an enemy. Hinata's Raiton and Shindōton were almost made for her Jūhou, she was not very interested in long-range ninjutsu, the whole reason she wanted to learn sensory-genjutsu, was so she could disorient her opponents, get close to them, and destroy them. Hinata made great headway with her vibration release, discovering a vibration sense that according to her, gave her a perfect all around sensory data stream, even better than the Byakugan, though she refused to elaborate. It was a Hyūga clan secret.

Hinata developed her Vibe Sense, it takes the vibrations produced by all matter and energy, down to the molecular level and sends it to her brain, which interprets the information through four of her five senses, hearing, touch, taste, even her sense of smell. Her Byakugan has evolved her brain to only accept data from her dojutsu, but her brain it seems, works to harmonize with all of its parts, and the range she can extend it is in the same field of vision as her clan's dojutsu. Which at four months and two weeks later, has a range of up to three miles in all directions, for both of her kekkei genkai. The hard part was not getting her to listen to her knew sensory technique, the hard part was getting her to trust it. Luckily, for her sleep and sanity, deactivating it was easy and they were able to teach her to control it within the first week of discovery, and by the end of that month it had become as instinctual for her as it is for Naruto's EM Field. Hinata, however, had been taught from a very early age, to give more regard to what her eyes tell her than what she gets from her other senses. Her Vibe Sense, threw all of that out of the window, because now she had to learn to accept data coming from all of her other senses, which was difficult, because you do not throw out years of operant conditioning overnight.

Naruto's discovery of Bluff of the Blindman, helped Hinata overcome this conditioning, the rest of the team helped too. Naruto cast Blind Man's Bluff, over Hinata, so even if she resorted subconsciously to using the Byakugan, it would do her no good. Once she learned that, she began listening to what her other senses were telling her, she found her equilibrium fairly easy. The Vibe Sense gave her perfect proprioception, the brain's perception of the body, and its position and movement through spacetime. Once Hinata was acclimated to using her senses while standing still, the team went on a hike through the forest, it was not the most treacherous path they could have taken, but it would definitely require you to pay attention. It was rough going for a little while, Blood Squad learned that Hinata had a penchant for swearing, especially when she bumped into things. It was Naruto, who admonished her to stop fighting her senses, "just accept their stimulus as truth, Hinata-chan," Naruto rebuked her, though gently, "let your mind do the work of understanding. That is what you told us to do when we started zazen meditation with you, is it not," Naruto reminded her?

Hinata gave him a dirty look, though she could not see him, she knew exactly where he was, "that's easy for you to say, Naruto-kun," she glared, "you can still see where you're going, your damn jutsu has rendered my family's dojutsu obsolete!"

Naruto just grinned, which Hinata could feel, and it made her turn her back to him with a huff, crossing her arms over her body with a stomp of her foot. "Trust me, I've had to practice something similar to this when I trained my electromagnetic force-field, and Radio Sense," he informed his teammate and friend, "we're easing you into this, compared to what the Sandaime and my own Aunt did to me. They were throwing dull kunai and shuriken at me, by this time in my training," he added. "Besides, you're doing it, Hinata," she turned to look at him to understand what he meant, "when you started yelling at me, you were looking in my direction, not in the direction my voice was coming from, but right at me. I suspect you could've thrown a kunai or shuriken at me and probably hit me, if I didn't move," Naruto stated, as he circled around her, and she followed his path precisely, "you're doing it even now as I speak to you. It seems when you stop thinking and just let things happen, your Vibes work perfectly, it's when you try to take over that you mess-up, am I right?"

Hinata sighed, "Very well, I'll enter zazen and stop taking over," she did her best and finally learned to trust her Vibes, she completed the hike a couple more times along the way, using different trails and routes. She even practiced vertical walking while blind, and once she did that, she was ready to practice more dynamic movements besides walking. They had Hinata practice her Jūhou katas, all of them, until she was doing them the way they had seen her do them, when unencumbered. Once they were sure Hinata was doing her katas as flawlessly as she always demonstrated, they decided to test something else. Sarutobi carefully threw a kunai through a section that was close to her, but not directly at the Genin kunoichi. Even while in the midst of her kata, they saw Hinata follow the path of the flying kunai with her head.

Then, Kurenai threw a shuriken in such a way, that it curved close to Hinata, but stayed just out of her reach. Hinata, still followed its flight path, but continued to perform her kata, this was when Sakura threw a dull kunai directly at the Hyūga's exposed back. Hinata flowed out of the way but brought her palm around, and without looking in that direction, caught the kunai by the handle, making it look like the move was all a part of her current sequence of movements. This was when Naruto jumped silently, with a kunai of his own at the ready. He thrust the blade rapidly toward the kunoichi, while Hinata used the blade she had caught as a makeshift defense, deflecting and dodging the blonde's attacks with professional flare. It was during one deflection, that Naruto put his thumb, forefinger, and middle-finger together, saying, "Terashimasu," and flicked his fingers open. There was a kaleidoscope of colored light, and the world appeared in Hinata's eyes once more.

Hinata did not lose a step, in her spar with her crush, her trust in her new senses was at such an instinctive level by now, that it barely even slowed her down when Naruto canceled his Kidoton-jutsu. She must have understood subconsciously that she was now seeing the blonde, because, "Byakugan," she said, she began firing attacks at him even faster. Hinata was at a disadvantage, because she only had a dull kunai as a weapon, Naruto was not so encumbered, and there was a reason he was the actual Rookie-of-the-Year for her class, but they never got a chance to face each other in taijutsu at the Academy. Naruto's taijutsu style, the Uzumaki-style known as Hapkiyosu, was not very big on direct striking, but about neutralizing the force of an attack or redirecting it. It was meant to be used to kill larger foes, or those in armor, which emphasized joint manipulation, throwing, and counter-throwing, it was perfectly suited to be used with a bladed weapon in one, and, or both hands. Jūhou, was mostly palm-strikes, meant to target specific organs, the movements were soft and fluid, to absorb the impacts of strikes, or not be there when the strike arrived, but it's strength was to be used empty-handed. Both styles favored flexibility and leverage, over main strength, and only the Jūhou's palm-strikes and maneuverability, required any form of speed.

Hinata knew, she needed to get some distance from Naruto, _this is not how I want to get close to him_, her only chance was to not allow him to control the flow of the battle. Hinata began to maneuver around Naruto at a quicker rate, redirecting his thrusts and parrying his very, precisely controlled slashes, _his technique is flawless_, she salivated for him, until she saw and felt him relax. That meant he had discovered her pattern, which was what she had been waiting for, because she put a deliberate halt to her current movements, which made him rush ahead of her, before he could reverse course, she rushed in behind him and slammed a chakra-and-adrenaline-fueled palm into Naruto's right flank, which was not enough to take him out. Naruto, knowing he was about to be struck relaxed the muscles in his abdomen, dissipating the force enough to keep him in the fight, but not enough to prevent himself from being pushed away from his opponent.

Naruto saw it, Hinata threw that unsharpened kunai directly at him, it bewildered him at first, she knew it would be useless against him, even if he allowed it to hit him, it would not have done any permanent damage. Before it left her hand, he thought, he saw the blade become distorted and heard a little crack of what sounded like thunder, then it was speeding toward him and it was not moving through the air too fast for him to sidestep the knife. Hinata suddenly charged toward Naruto, she moved too fast for him to do anything, so he set himself for the impact, but instead of her whole body colliding with his, she literally ran up Naruto's front. She pushed off using a kick to his head from both legs, that attack did knock him over and he was even seeing stars.

_Naruto-kun, is a very good ninja,_ Hinata thought as she rebounded off Naruto's face, she backflipped through the air letting her arms spread out to balance her, while she flew through the air, _if he has any drawback, it's that he's too good for his age, he's so good that he sometimes gets cocky, and taken with his own cleverness._ As Hinata arced through the air, the ground moving beneath her, _he's not arrogant or anything, doesn't view anybody as beneath him, but sometimes he thinks he's Kami's gift and nobody his age can beat him. That's the sort of thinking that could lead to his demise, and I refuse to allow that to happen if I can prevent it, I may not have trusted my Shindō no kankaku (Vibe Sense) until now, but I have been practicing other applications to use with my Shindōton. I've been incorporating them in with my Jūhou-style, I've learned to vibrate my body at unheard of speeds, not the speed of light or anything, that might actually cause a black hole for all I know, that much accumulated mass in one place; if that didn't do it, the first time I tried to move, adding kinetic force to my already near infinite mass, definitely would? No, I'll probably never try for, let alone achieve vibration at light speed, but I've definitely reached supersonic speeds, Mach 3 at least, with better chakra control I could probably reach Mach 6. I can vibrate all or parts of my body at Mach 3, which adds plenty of mass, I think today, I'll do it to my whole body, really drive it home for my bae, that we're clever too._

Hinata landed a few feet back from her position, "Vibe Freak Three," (Shindō Hindō San) she declared, and her entire body began vibrating at three times the speed of sound! Hinata was barely visible, and the second her vibrating body broke the sound barrier, there was a sonic-boom, which could be heard all over the village, and broke several windows in the village. "Eight Trigrams: Twin Palms," came her now distorted voice, as she lunged, driving both palms forward! They came into contact with something invisible, the force shocked it out of its Unseen technique, and there was an approximation of pain on the Naruto look a like's handsome face, before the force of Hinata's attack, destroyed his Senko Bunshin, in a rainbow shower of waves and particles. By this time, the real Naruto was sitting up, as the Kyūbi finished healing him, he was looking at her with astonishment written all over his face. Hinata just grinned, "You may be invisible, Naruto-kun," she answered his questioning face, "but we still have our other senses, as someone who trained his senses with the Inuzuka, you should be ashamed, for not taking better precautions with the other markers of your passage. You still move the air around you, when you travel, don't you know?"

There was a humorous laughter coming from her right, they looked and there standing with a shocked Kurenai-sensei, Sakura-san, was the Third Hokage who was clapping his hands. He walked over to stand next to the Hyūga heiress, "you are quite correct, my dear," he agreed with her, and looked at his surrogate grandson, "he may have been unseen, but he is still there, he is just hiding behind a curtain."

Naruto stood up and marched toward the heiress, when he got there he promptly bowed, "Thank you, Hinata-chan, I fear that I had become cocky," then he gave her a self-deprecating smile, before adding, "thank you for taking the time to pop my oversized head."

"Yes," Hiruzen agreed, "and I believe congratulations are in order," Hinata, though she was overjoyed and embarrassed about the praise, looked confused, "you are the first person, besides Naruto-kun to ever destroy a Senko Bunshin, and the first time was by accident, over a month ago."

Naruto shuddered, as he put his arm around his teammate, after getting her permission of course, "man, that last attack was something else, it's a good thing Flash Clones don't bleed. Imagine the mess it would make if you used it on an animal."

Hinata laughed, "I don't have to imagine, I know, one of the first times I tried that attack, was against a side of beef in one of the Hyūga meat packing plants. I wanted to see what kind of damage I could do," the two boys, grandson and grandfather looked at her rapt with fascination, as she continued, "it destroyed the already dead animal, there wasn't anything left of the thing when I was done. You're also right in the mess it made, I had to clean for hours, and of course pay the owner for the lost time and money the product would have gained for him."

Kurenai and Sakura had started over with the Sandaime, when something else caught their eyes. They made their way over to a tree, sticking out of that tree was a handle, the hilt of a kunai. It was the kunai, Hinata had thrown to distract Naruto from her real attack, "How did she do this," Sakura wondered, "this kunai was as dull as a spoon, we did that to make sure we did not hurt Hinata, if she wasn't as sure of her Vibe Sense as we believed."

Kurenai thought for a moment, and realization dawned on her face, "Remember when the kunai became distorted, right before she threw it?" Sakura nodded, and Kurenai continued, "I noticed the same distortion around Hinata's body, just before she destroyed the Flash Clone, from the alteration of her voice I know she was vibrating at supersonic speeds. Well, if she can do that with her body, which is more fragile than metal, why wouldn't she be able to do it with the metal of the kunai," she reasoned?

Sakura walked around to the back of the tree, and gasped, "Kurenai-sensei, you have got to come see this," she exclaimed. Kurenai hurried around to her student and added her own gasp, while taking a startled step back with an arm over her heart in shock. Because, while the front of the tree remained largely intact, the back, where all the unspent energy was released had been demolished. The tree was one of the older trees of the forest, which means it was one of the thicker examples of it species in this part of the forest. The entire back half of the tree had been blown away, there were splinters the size of her pinkie, sticking into several trees at least twenty yards behind it, and not just into the bark, there were some of them actually protruding through the entire wood of the tree. "If Hinata can do this with a blunt kunai, what the Hell could she do with a properly sharpened one, or a properly sharpened shuriken," Sakura wondered out loud?

"That's nothing," her sensei told her, "with her Byakugan, along with her Vibration techniques, and a senbon in her hand, with any of her chakra natures she'll become a walking force of nature. It'll be perfect for her sensory genjutsu training," Kurenai mused, "as her sensei, its my duty to open her eyes to these things. Let's go, we have five more months before the Chunin Exams, but I won't recommend our team until we've begun C-ranked missions," Kurenai stated as she walked to her two students, the Sandaime had already departed, "and we have a lot of work to do before I'll believe you're ready."

Sakura-chan was not only surviving, the distance between her mother and father, she was thriving without being under their thumb. While she still acted like a lady in most situations, she had been under the influence of Anko Mitarashi, who had succeeded in relaxing the strict upbringing the rosette took from the Harunos. Conversely, Sakura succeeded in doing the one thing to Anko, that nobody had ever done before, make her mind her manners. While still a rough, earthy, uncouth character, which anybody who has spent a good deal of time with her knows, is just a defense, coping mechanism to try keeping people at a distance, after what her sensei did to her, which she does not even remember. It has not worked, because despite her nature, Anko Mitarashi has developed a whole platoon of precious people, that will stick by her and defend her until death takes them from her. The opposite, is also true with Anko in how she regards her precious ones. None have become quite as dear to the Snake Mistress of Konoha, as the pink-haired kunoichi, she took under her wing at the age of ten. They have moved in together, and it seems more like they are long lost sisters, than roommates.

The dynamics of the living situation are private, and not fodder for discussion here, but Anko, in addition to training her own team, which since they all come from clans, largely consists of shoring up their taijutsu-styles, learning chakra affinities: Kiba is Fire, Sasuke is Lightning, and Shino is Earth, and getting them started with Genin-level chakra-control. She mostly had them practicing teamwork exercises and physical fitness training, during team meetings, they spent less time training together than the other teams and had a professional relationship, at most. Alternatively, they spent more time on D-rank missions, than training, and by mutual consent, had Sasuke as their lead, Kiba was a natural follower though not a bootlicker, and Shino did not really care who led. Sasuke was pretty good at it, he seemed to be a natural leader, and all in all they were a pretty strong team.

But, Anko spent most of her and Sakura's free-time, training Sakura in taijutsu, and introducing her to different weapons: mostly staff and sword techniques, but also in the use of spears, double sword techniques, which paired well with her Storm Art training, but more on that later, Mother & Son Cho-ken (butterfly sword) techniques, three-section staff training, Horse Bench training, which was about finding and using everyday objects as weapons, and Twin Rod training, which also paired well with Arashi no jutsu.

Anko introduced Sakura to a different style of martial discipline, which perfectly utilized the sensual, flexibility of Hebi-Style, but added loads of power to her strikes and tons of versatility, it's called, Chuen-style. The Essence of the style is five attacks in an instant, three heights and eight directions, long and short range attacks, flexible foot and legwork, and all simultaneously accomplished in a single second. Sakura acquired first-class, powerful kicks, but was in no way restricted to kicking alone, the footwork is elusive and flexible, with powerful, short-range fists. Training in Chuen concentrated on building a tremendous amount of stamina, as well as development of power and flexibility in the legs. Sakura would learn one posture at a time, until all three heights and eight directions were mastered; only then, would the next posture be taught. Weight training, iron rings, and stone locks were used, in addition to Naruto's G.R.A seals, for the development of strength, stamina, and speed. Sakura practiced all of her techniques on Senko Bunshin, and trees, which was a terrific, training aid to building power into her punches and kicks, because she passed through a stage in her training, she had to develop a considerable amount of power before progressing further.

Sakura started out, learning basic hand patterns and stances, which developed whipping power and spiraling motions, then she learned kicks, developing the seven sides of the foot. After that, she learned balance, rooting, and how to develop power from the waist, she learned to harmonize hands and feet, and developed flexible, stepping methods and handwork, learning what she called, Kitsui te hōhō, which made her hands and feet by themselves deadly weapons, without using chakra. Sakura, also learned Kurenai's family taijutsu-style, Aikijujutsu, whose movements were so similar to Uzumaki style taijutsu, as to make him and Yugao, both wonder if there might be a familial link, between the Yūhi and the Uzumaki clans.

Sakura spent a couple of days per week at the hospital, learning how to be a medical ninja, Hinata and Naruto accompanied her for certain classes but not others, the hospital was Sakura territory, and they both understood that. She saw her best friend, Ino there, which was the only time they had to spend together, with their busy schedules. Ino was the only person, Sakura told about her actions in the Academy, and her attitude toward Naruto. Ino knew about Anko, and their training together, the Yamanaka helped Sakura with her deception of her parents by fomenting a pseudo-rivalry for Sasuke's affections, of which, only Ino's feelings for him were genuine. Well, as genuine as they can be for a preteen girl, which in Ino's case, lasted until her third day on her team, and no she did not switch her affections to Shisui, he was in her opinion an old man, her attentions were now, firmly affixed upon another boy. Kiba was also training to be a medical ninja, he always enjoyed working with all animals, not just dogs, he hoped to learn enough to work with his sister, Hana, at her veterinary clinic.

On the same week the first month went into the second, Naruto and Sakura were walking on their way to meet Anko and Yugao. They had been training together working on their kekkei genkai, Naruto his three, and Sakura's one. Naruto, to maintain his kekkei tota's status as an S-ranked secret, could only practice his Kidoton at home. Naruto was developing something he could use with his magnet release; it was going to be used with senbon, he was not sure what to even call it yet, but he would have it ready for the upcoming chunin exams. He was also developing a special, throwable container, that could be used with his explosive chakra, they might be closer to completion, in three more months. Naruto's plasma chakra was the most useful, and the most developed of his kekkei genkai, and what was truly exciting for both members of Team Blood, was both of their bloodlines, were mirror twins of each other.

The only real differences between the two, were purely cosmetic, the spectra of light they emitted were different. Plasma release jutsu always ran the gamut between red and green, Storm release jutsu were always running between green and violet spectra. Other than that, they were perfect twins of each other, Sakura was phenomenal at finding variations in the jutsu Naruto already created. Naruto showed her how to make a plasma blade, she took the idea a step further, and created storm-whips, with differing variations of whips, from cat-o-nine-tails to bullwhip configurations.

He showed her, his most devastating plasma technique, which he called a Ruby-Eyed God, where he spun the plasma into a very compact, angry scarlet sphere, they were out at Training Ground 100, the farthest point away from Konoha one could get before becoming a missing-nin. There was a mountain down range of the couple, there were several cylindrical holes drilled through it, you could see sunlight coming through from those holes. Naruto twisted around and thrust his palms toward the crag, a beam of energy shot away from the shinobi's hand and headed straight for the rock. When it struck, something Naruto was not expecting happened, the top portion of the mountain, just went away, vaporized, converted from matter to energy in an instant. That was expected, what was not expected was the amount of the mountain that was destroyed, he had expected a neat little hole, not Kami's wrath. He moved back through his memories, and compared it to previous episodes, which is where he found the difference, in the past the beam would shrink in circumference the closer it came to the mountain, and the further it went from him. It retained its intensity, but reduced in size, the only damage the mountain received was a small hole. Naruto chuckled in derision, and said, "This is the difference between the Academy chakra control exercise, and what we're learning now."

Naruto, with the help of Sakura, learned to dial it back so it was now anti-personnel, not anti-mountain, and she developed her own version, which was violet, that she called, Angel's Judgement. It was Sakura, who came up with plasma constructs, she got the idea from her medical training, where a ninja if they are out of kunai and shuriken, needs to perform emergency surgery, so they formed the cutting tools from pure chakra. Plasma or Arashi constructs worked the same way, just made from plasma, and Storm Art filaments, as Sakura took to calling them, "Kunai and Shuriken are a finite resource, Naruto-kun," she explained to him, "there may come a time when we run out of them, but still need them, we can use our jutsu to make them from our chakra. Chakra as long as we remain alive is replenished, every second of everyday of our lives," she explained this as she twirled a Storm Art made kunai in her hands, it seemed to act like the metal one in her other hand. Then she threw the metal one at a tree, followed by the glowing one, on impact the filament created kunai struck the tree just as the metal kunai did.

"That's way cool, Sakura-chan," Naruto marveled, "if either of us ever recreated the Yondaime's Hiraishin, there's no telling were we could come from."

The other jutsu Sakura created, but Naruto decided not to emulate was the Arashi Bunshin no jutsu, it had all of the same capabilities as the Kage and Senko Bunshins, but it was not as durable as Flash Clones. They could take a lot of punishment, but they were easier to destroy than Naruto's invention. Naruto did not want to learn it, because he felt he had all the clones he needed, "This is your invention, Sakura-chan," Naruto said as he looked in her eyes, flicking a lock of hair to the side, "you should be recognized for using it, and nobody else, this actually helps both of us, Sakura-chan."

"What do you mean, Naruto-kun," the rosette asked?

"This means I can teach you, either the Kage Bunshin technique, or my Senko Bunshin," Naruto answered, "Tsunade-sama made me promise, not to teach them to you or Hinata-chan, because of the chakra requirements. But your Storm Clones, use as much chakra as the Shadow Clones and my Flash Clones," Naruto informed her, "you've made fifty so far, and you're not even winded. If you can do that, it means you're ready for either type of clone," Naruto concluded, he smirked at her and asked, "so which one do you want to learn, Sakura-chan, I won't teach you both, its payment for letting me use plasma constructs?"

Sakura smiled a beautiful smile, "you have to ask, Flash me, baby?" The way she said it, made Naruto blush, her smile changed into a leer, and her voice turned seductive, "get your mind out of the gutter, one thing at a time, dear. Teach me, then screw me," he blushed even heavier, and she just giggled, she had definitely lived with Anko Mitarashi for far too long.

They were standing outside of a novelty weapon's shop, something had caught their eyes as they walked by, two objects to be honest, two… they wanted to call them swords but they were broken, and seemed to be held together in the center, by wire. They walked inside and spoke to the clerk, "They're called Snake Blades, the reason is obvious," the clerk picked one up, out of the window display, and began whirling them around, propagating energy through the waves they made, "they're made of chakra-metal, and they're said to be made of the same metal as Orochimaru's infamous Grass Cutter blade." He looked at a mannequin on the other side of the shop wearing full samurai armor, with a casual flick the clerk sent the blades rippling through the air, and at its most extreme length there was what sounded like the crack of a whip, that passed through the dummy with extreme ease, then with a flick of his wrist, the clerk brought the weapon back into it's resting state. Which was a short, dual-edged sword, about as long as Naruto's arm, then the clerk pointed the handle at Naruto, "and here's the best part, here young sir, channel your chakra into it."

Naruto did just that and was astonished, when the sword extended itself with a blade of lightning extending between the sharpened sections. "It looks like Raijin no ken, and a snake had a baby," Naruto remarked.

The clerk smiled, "that's actually a good way to look at it, but the Thunder God's sword was actually a prototype for these, and it was not as versatile, they were made to manifest the elemental affinities of their users, with Earth it becomes a regular metallic blade but unbreakable, and forever sharp; Water gives you the force of a raging river condensed into the size of the blade, nothing can stop that much force; Thunder turns it into an unstoppable piercing weapon; Fire will make your enemy think he or she is in Hell; Wind chakra and you can cut through anything."

Naruto looked down in thought, he channeled his plasma chakra through the sword, and the reaction was strong, the blade extended itself and an angry crimson blade extended the sections, reminding Naruto and Sakura of his Plasma and her Arashi whips. Naruto retracted his chakra, and looked sidelong at his teammate, "how much would you take for this thing?"

The clerk smiled at the opportunity to make a sale, and said, "we're actually having a clearance sale this week, the owners are selling the place, so everything is half-off, that means I can sell it to you, for two-hundred bucks."

Naruto smiled, with all the D-ranks he has had lately, and not having to pay rent or anything, he was flush with cash, "In that case, I'll take this one, and the one in the window for Sakura-chan."

Sakura had been interested in these blades as well, but now that she was living on her own, she had to watch every dime, she did have rent to pay after all, and such extravagant things like exotic weapons were an expense she could not justify. Then she heard what Naruto-kun said, "what, Naruto-kun, I don't need your charity," she snapped!

"I'm not giving it to you out of charity," Naruto answered, "your birthday was last month, I was in a quandary over what to get you, so I feigned forgetfulness about the date. These weapons, are perfect for you and would pair well with your taijutsu training. Actually, that's not true," Naruto stated with a flushed face, "one of them is for your birthday, the other one, is a gift to you from me, because I like you, Sakura-chan."

Sakura looked into his eyes and found them, to be the most sincere eyes she had ever seen. Sakura ran a hand up Naruto's arm, until she cupped his cheek in hers, before standing up on tip-toes. Their lips met for a long, beautiful, loving kiss, it took her breath away and if she was not standing on them, her toes would have curled.

_Flashback End_-Now

There were no hard feelings from Hinata or Kurenai, over losing the competition over Naruto's heart, as long as she made him happy, and they treated each other right, as teammates and as a couple. By the end of the second month they had perfected vertical walking, and on the third and fourth months, they began water-walking, which was easier to do than vertical-walking. Once they got their chakra-control at the right level, Kurenai began training them all in genjutsu, all of them learned to break everything short of S-ranked genjutsu, by the end of the third month. Once they were proficient in breaking them, Kurenai began training Hinata and Naruto in casting genjutsu, though by the end of the fourth month, they were still practicing sensory genjutsu.

The Hokage's Office

There was a knock on the door, "Come," the door opened, and Blood Squad filed in to the Hokage's office! There was a Tsunade sitting behind her desk, which was empty of the dreaded paperwork, except of course for mission reports, and incomplete missions. There was, off to the side, another Hokage desk with another Tsunade, which was cluttered with all of the paperwork, the real Slug Princess, did not want to do. Tsunade raised her head and smiled, "Ah, Team Blood, are you here for another D-rank," she said waving her hand in front of a stack of scrolls, "as you can see, we're overflowing with them."

They were all dressed in the required uniform for Genin, though to reflect a united front, they were all wearing blue, and crimson forehead protectors in the same spots they chose to at the Academy. Kurenai was wearing her normal red mesh armour blouse with only the right sleeve visible, a very broad material, which resembles bandages with a pattern on it, similar to those of rose thorns. Her hands and upper thighs are also wrapped in bandages, and she wears the Konoha forehead protector, though in an act of solidarity with her students, her hitai ate was crimson, and regular shinobi sandals. She wore make-up consisting of red lipstick and purple eye shadow. Naruto and Hinata had their balaclavas down, and Sakura had unwrapped her shemagh, her Hebi-ken as she had renamed them, peaked up over her shoulders.

She and Naruto had dispensed with the normal ninja tool pouch, after a demonstration of the storm and plasma constructs, they now wore a very small version of it, consisting solely of ninja wire. On their right hips, in leather holsters where the pouches used to be, were strange 'L' shaped devices, made of chakra-metal according to Naruto, who had the devices commissioned from the same weaponsmith, that made her great-uncle's Thunder Sword, and Sakura's Hebi-ken. Sakura's sai had been replaced with something special for her by Naruto, for their three month anniversary, another thing he had commissioned from the weaponsmith, a pair of billy-clubs, also made of the same metal which made up Orochimaru's Kusanagi, that could be configured into various bludgeons, from nunchucks to bo-staffs. The devices Naruto called, Blasters, helped them aim their plasma and storm techniques, with pinpoint accuracy, though he said they were working on better ways to aim them, and had other techniques that did not require them. Hinata was not wearing the normal ninja pouch either, it had a seal placed on it by Naruto to allow for her to bring more tools from another place, and switch between, kunai, shuriken, and senbon in an instant.

Kurenai looked at her students, and noted their bearing, waiting for her to speak for them, _they are disciplined, they might just be ready_, she thought, "Hokage-sama, it is my humble belief the Blood Squad, is ready to accept their first C-ranked mission," Kurenai declared. She was doing her best to conceal her pride in her kids, as she has come to see them, for truly, she feels like a proud mother about to let go of her babies.

Tsunade finished her private assessment, and agreed with a nod, "If you believe it, then so do I," she buzzed her intercom, "Natsume, please send in Tazuna-san."


	8. Wave Crest

**Wave Crest**

Man, from Nami

The door to the Hokage's waiting area opened, and an old man entered, he was a grey-haired, bespectacled man with a large beard and dark eyes. Tazuna wore a sleeveless V-neck shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals, a towel around his neck, and wore a pointed hat on his head. He stopped just inside the door, eyeing the room with a critical eye, "What is this, I asked for ninja, not kunoichi," he slurred, before opening an unseen jug, tipped his head back, and began to chug? When he finished, he stoppered the jug, and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, then added, "this is going to require a lot more prowess than an invitation to the bedroom."

The KI directed at the bridge-builder by everybody in the room, instantly sobered him up, "Are you calling me a whore, bridge-builder," Tsunade stood and marched over getting in the old man's face, "because I am a kunoichi too, and I'll have you know, I've fought and defeated people that would make you piss your pants? I fought in two Great Ninja Wars, and countless smaller wars, battles, skirmishes, and incidental missions, since I became a kunoichi at eleven-years-old! Also, not that it's any of your business, the _only_ man I have ever lain with was my fiancé, and no one else since he died in service to this village," she yelled in his face! "Now, would you like to get on with explaining this mission for these ninja," she asked in a much calmer voice, "but I warn you, one more crack about my people, of any kind, we will cancel this mission, and you will have to find another village to employ, and that includes during the journey back to your homeland? Are we clear, Tazuna-san?"

Tazuna bowed his head toward the Hokage, "I apologize, Hokage-sama," he declared, then bowed to the others he saw in the room, "and my apologies to you all, what I said was uncalled for and if anybody else said the same thing about my daughter, I would do my best to murder, the rat-bastard! I humbly ask for you to forgive me," Tazuna's contrition was sincere, as far as Naruto and Hinata could determine?

Naruto remained silent, he was only insulted by association, it is the kunoichi on his team who had the right to accept or deny his request for forgiveness. Thank Kami, he grew up living with a kunoichi, and knew how most of them thought. They neither needed nor wanted a man to come to their defense in matters of honor, these deadly women could see to their own honor, thank you very much. Kurenai, Hinata, Sakura, and Tsunade, shared a look, an unreadable glance and they all gave a subtle nod, and turned back to the client, "You are forgiven, Tazuna-san," Kurenai-sensei graciously accepted his apology, but added, "but be warned any further insults from you or even those close to you, and even in the midst of battle we will depart and leave you to your own fate."

"I understand, kunoichi-kun," Tazuna nodded, "now before I put my foot in my mouth again. May I explain my mission," the entire team nodded this time, and he began? "My nation of Wave has always been a poor nation, but happy, we're not big at all, we have less landmass than even some cities, but are fiercely protective of our independence. That independence is now being threatened, by a very small man, who casts a very large shadow, the business tycoon, Gato of Gato Trading Company."

The eyes of all grew wide at that name, besides skills, all of them were up to date on current events around the world, and the name Gato was seen in quite a number of newspaper, magazine, and current events websites. Tsunade already knew all of this, no mission goes through without thorough vetting, and her sources are numerous, which included, among other things, Jiraiya's spy network.

"I see I don't have to explain who this man is to you," Tazuna nodded, "good, that saves us time. A year or so ago, Gato entered Nami no Kuni and began buying up shipping companies, and dock space, even commercial fishing assets were bought out, every square footage of waterfront property fell under his control. As, I'm sure you are aware, to a nation like Wave, entirely dependent upon its seafront real-estate, owning that property, puts a stranglehold on our economy, on our very lives. As soon as Gato finalized his monopoly in Wave, he began strangling our poor nation, the way a python would its prey. In order to break his monopoly, I began building a bridge, that would connect Wave Island to Hi no Kuni," Tazuna finished his story, then his face turned dark, followed by his face, "but Gato will do anything to maintain his grip on Wave. I think, he wants to be elevated to the status of Daimyo, even as one of the wealthiest men in the world, there is still only so much he can accomplish, but as royalty he can do so much more."

Tsunade scoffed, "even if he does become Daimyo, if he proves himself to be too troublesome, the other nations, most likely our very own Fire Nation, because of our proximity, will just gobble him up."

Tazuna nodded, as he had thought of that as well, "that is also my thought, but either way, the people of Wave would be caught like grain between the mill-stone and the trough. Which is all the more of a reason to finish my bridge before it's too late."

"Why doesn't Gato just wait until its finished, and then blow it up," Naruto asked, "that might dissolution other people from trying that again?"

"If it was a bridge within a nation, you'd be correct, Naruto-kun," Tsunade explained, "however, there is a certain etiquette involving bridges connecting between nations. If Gato attack's the bridge after completion, then it will be seen as an attack on both nations," she continued, "Fire would retaliate by sending more of us to back the upstart off and teach him a lesson."

"That's right," Tazuna stated somberly, "but until it is complete the bridge is the sole responsibility of the nation that began the project, hence why Gato is getting desperate to prevent my bridge's completion. So much so, that he has begun to hire ninja to try and stop me from completing it," he stated, finally getting to the reason for his presence. "I need help from the Leaf to guard me and my family as I complete my bridge."

"Forgive me, Hokage-sama, but how is this a C-Ranked mission," Hinata asked, "if these truly are ninja, then shouldn't this be a B-rank, even borderline A-rank, depending upon the caliber of ninja we face?"

Tsunade grinned ruefully, "normally you'd be right, Hyūga-Genin-san," delicately reminding Hinata of her place, "but Tazuna-san, cannot afford anything higher than a C-rank, and this is a golden opportunity for Fire Nation to acquire another trade route." The Genin of Blood Squad stared straight ahead, _is that all she cared about, the money this mission _could _bring to Fire, which would only be true _if_ they succeeded_, they stared straight ahead, not bothering to look at their Hokage? It was such a striking reversal of her attitude at the beginning of the meeting, she seemed to go from a caring benevolent leader, to a callous one in just a few moments, that it made them wonder something. Quietly, they stopped the flow of their chakra, and found, a bit of foreign chakra running through their chakra coils, they recognized it, as belonging to their sensei, they allowed their chakra to start flowing again, which broke them out of the genjutsu.

As one, they turned their faces to their sensei, in a subtle glare, but she only had a mysterious smile, indicating for them to pay attention. They turned resolutely back to look at their Hokage who was still at the beginning of what she was saying, "normally you'd be correct, Hinata-san," the Hokage grinned, noting the final test their sensei gave them to insure they were ready, they could be covert if it was necessary, then she continued, "but Tazuna-san, cannot afford anything higher than a C-rank, and this is a golden opportunity for Fire Nation to acquire Wave Nation through annexation, which will bring them under Fire laws, and remove Gato's ownership of the waterfront property, and bring it under our Daimyo's control. To insure this, Konoha will be sending a pair of ANBU along with you," Tsunade finished.

There was a chuckle, and a giggle, as Naruto and Hinata grinned knowingly, "that's very clever, Hokage-sama," they said together.

"So glad you both approve," Tsunade said dryly.

"Will that not drive up the price," Tazuna asked with concern?

"Not at all, Tazuna-san," Sakura spoke up for the first time, "you see, ANBU base pay is a part of Konoha infrastructure, where as other ninja, from Genin to Jōnin, get paid directly through missions. Tsunade-sama, is giving us the best chance for success, by including two ANBU in our team," the rosette kunoichi explained, "she's giving you more bang for your buck, so to speak."

"Who will be accompanying us, Hokage-sama," Kurenai asked?

Tsunade grinned, "Tsuki (Moon), Neko (Cat), make yourselves known," she ordered!

There were a couple of blurs in the room, and before the Hokage had closed her mouth two ANBU, shinobi and kunoichi stood before their commanding officer. "Hai, Hokage-sama?"

"Are you two ready," Tsunade asked, when they nodded, "good, you are going on a mission with Blood Squad here, but while it is important, we don't want our adversaries knowing how important, therefore you will go dressed as normal Jōnin. Understood?"

"Understood," they chorused, and they performed a hand sign, and their clothes seemed to melt around them, only to reform an instant later into the standard Jōnin uniform. They turned after completing the transformation, and Naruto's Aunt and her boyfriend, faced them all. They had used True Transformations to alter their clothes for the mission parameters, while the kunoichi used the summoning technique to bring a particular item from where she kept it, into her hands. Yugao looked the same as she always did, except her violette-hair was in a kunoichi-braid, and the Uzumaki family katana, which she had summoned settled into place, peaking over a shoulder. It looked just like any other katana, but the tsuba was an ovular Onmyō-symbol. The man standing next to her, was a well-respected Tokubetsu Jōnin, named Hayate Gekkō. Hayate had short brown hair, dark-colored eyes and dark markings under his eyes. He also carried a katana, strapped over his back, with a rectangular hand guard.

"Oh, thank Kami," Naruto stated in relief, "another shinobi will be along for this mission."

Sakura turned a glare on to her boyfriend, "What's that supposed to mean, Naruto-_kun_?"

"It means, Sakura-chan," not backing down at all, he told her what he meant, "that as much as I admire and respect all kunoichi, especially my teammates, not to mention, my girlfriend and aunt, I sometimes feel that I'm adrift in a sea of estrogen. Plus, once a month, one or more of you, seems to decide that I need to be mentally and emotionally tortured, just for being a man," Naruto added, then sighed and inhaled through his nose, "one of the drawbacks of having an enhanced sense of smell is I can always tell which of you is on your period, or which one of you is in heat." Naruto was deliberately looking at the ceiling to avoid making eye-contact with either of the women, who had turned red when they realized, they hid nothing from their teammate, and or, boyfriend or nephew.

"Why not, stand upwind of them, Naruto," Tsunade asked out of medical curiosity, "then you won't smell them?"

"If only it were that simple, Hokage-sama," Naruto sighed, "but one of the drawbacks to mastering your element as you may know, is you are subconsciously manipulating that chakra element to benefit yourself. Earth specialists tend to leave a wake in the dirt wherever they walk, even on stone, fire users are a little warmer than normal, water ninja tend to humidify the air, and lightning masters are more prone to static electricity," Tsunade and the other Jōnin nodded their heads, the other genin listened with fascination, and the civilian looked interested, "well, wind masters like me, tend to alter the local air currents to draw in the winds they need to work with, so no matter where I stand, I'm always downwind."

"Why did you not tell us this before, Naruto," his aunt asked dangerously?

Realizing he was in trouble no matter what he said, he decided to, bite the senbon, and just tell the truth, "I did it to keep from embarrassing you," Naruto said, studiously ignoring Tazuna in the room. "I apologize for blurting it out here in front of Tazuna, but I was so relieved to finally have another shinobi to talk to on my first mission that I blurted it out."

Before further discussion could be had, Tsunade decided to get them back on track, "Getting to the other subject at hand, Blood Squad is to accompany Tazuna-san here, back to Nami, and guard him until he finishes his bridge. You are authorized to use any and all means to prevent his demise," she was looking directly at Naruto when she said that, he quirked an eyebrow, looking at Tsunade to make sure he understood what she was authorizing, when she emphasized, "any means short of assassination of Gato. If he attacks directly, you may do what you must, but until then he is to be left alone. Is that understood," she asked?

"**Understood,**" they all said!

"Good, Kurenai-sensei," Tsunade said, "give them their marching orders."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the crimson-eyed kunoichi acknowledged, before turning to her team, and began giving them orders, "you will all go home, and pack everything you will need for an extended trip, meet me at the Village Main Gate in exactly one-hour." They waited for her to finish her instructions, and give the execute order, "**Go**!" They were a memory as soon as her mouth closed, they did not see her smile of pride in them, _you will all become great ninja, I am just glad I could have been a part of your story._

* * *

New Traditions

Naruto and Yugao wasted no time getting to the house, as they entered the house they headed to their respective rooms. They really, did not have to do much preparation, because one of the village's standing orders for all ninja was to be able to set out on a mission, at a moment's notice. That meant having what they needed for a mission ready at all times, ready to go immediately upon receipt of the mission. The hour Kurenai gave them was generous, it was mainly so they could settle any business they might have while they were away early, or schedule for a later date. Naruto picked up a large scroll in his room, into it he sealed clothes, rations, medical equipment, they may not be medic-nin like Sakura-chan, but all of them knew how to do emergency medicine.

His biggest issue while packing, was whether or not to include a regular kunai and shuriken pouch, or just rely on his chakra constructs. In the end, he decided to include them, _if anything it'll throw off our enemies as to our true capabilities_, he added two, just in case, one went on his hip in the standard load-out, the other he brought for Sakura, when he suggests she do something similar to hide their true skills from enemies.

Naruto, of course, was wearing his Ten-Fist sword on his back, which he always did since becoming a Genin. He was making his way downstairs to find his aunt and had just stopped by the foyer to lay his scroll next to the door, when the doorbell rang. Checking who it was with his Kidogan, Naruto opened the door with a smile, "Hi, guys, what're you doing here," he asked with enthusiasm?

Standing on their porch was Anko, Sakura, Hayate, Hinata, Kiba with Akamaru, Hana with the triplets, and Kurenai, they all file inside. Hana is the one to answer his question, "your aunt invited us over, to take part in an Uzumaki clan tradition," she explained, "it's a tradition that usually only involves family, but she said we're family in every way that matters."

Naruto understood his aunt's thoughts on that matter, "well, she's right there," he agreed, "you may not be Uzumaki, but you've all become like family to us," he said, stepping back to allow them to enter.

They filed in, most going on into the family-room, while Sakura moved to stand next to her boyfriend, looping an arm through his. She gave him a quick cheek kiss as a greeting, but otherwise remained quietly beside him. As soon as the rest had left, and Naruto closed the door, he turned to look at his girlfriend, while bringing her as close as he could without her permission. She may be his girlfriend, but her body was hers, of course, she answered his unspoken question, about how much intimacy she would allow, when she threaded her arms around his neck and kissed him.

This was one of the things Sakura truly enjoyed about being Naruto's girlfriend, she could touch him however she wanted. It was not even the kissing they did, and that absolutely thrilled her, it was just being close to him, inhaling his scent, feeling his skin under her fingers. He was handsome too, his whisker-marks always made her fingers itch to stroke them, and she had done so a time or to, which heated up his kisses more than they normally were, _he purrs when I do that, the first time it happened I thought my ears were playing tricks on me, or I was in a genjutsu, but they weren't, and I wasn't. We had been on a date when it happened, and were on our way back to my flat, we stopped in the park, because there was no way, I was going home without snogging my boyfriend. We were walking by a park bench, when I grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward it. I sat him down on it and climbed on top of him, straddling his lap, my knees on either side of his hips, we were crotch to crotch, then snaking my arms around his neck I decided to be gentle with him. I tenderly pressed my lips to his, they were as sweet to me as every other time we'd kissed, which was a lot since that magnificent day, my bae, bought me my angels, as I call them. I was caressing his cheek when I heard, "prr, prr," I was startled at first, and leaned back instantly. "Something wrong, Sakura-chan," my guy asked?_

_I immediately shook my head and got back to my favorite new activity, kissing Naruto Uzumaki. I had no sooner resumed my caresses on his cheek, when it began again, "prr, prr," I was ready for it this time, and didn't immediately pull away. That's when I realized, Naruto Uzumaki, one of, if not the strongest shinobi of our generation, and liable to be the next Itachi Uchiha, purred. What's more, is he didn't seem to realize he was doing it, this big, strong, powerful, tough, smart, miracle of a man, did something so incredibly cute, and out of character and he was totally unaware of doing it._

At that moment, Sakura felt an irrational, possessive emotion, come over her. She suddenly didn't like her teammates, the other kunoichi in his life, even his aunt felt like an intruder to her. Sakura squashed that feeling as soon as it reared its ugly head, he didn't belong to her any more than she belonged to him. She had to share him with the world, but this one little piece of him, was only for her, and she felt so incredibly special because of it.

_As soon as, I got home that night, Anko was in the living-room, watching her favorite cooking show. I paused as soon as I was through the door, leaning back against it. Just being in Naruto's presence was starting to make me feel like a silly little girl, my knees go weak every time I'm near him. I looked over at my roommate, who had paused her show and was giving me a knowing smirk. "Good date," she asked innocently?_

_I just smiled, "very," I replied, "now, if you'll excuse me, there is a cold-shower calling my name, loudly!" I dashed into my room, got my things, and headed to the bathroom, hoping to escape whatever comment, Anko might make at my expense._

_I wasn't fast enough, "must've been some date, who knew, Naruto-kun was able to elicit this kind of reaction, from little lady Sakura?" My cheeks were pinker than my hair when the door finally closed._

Sakura returned to the present, standing in the foyer of her boyfriend's home, she stepped back to arm's length, and regarded him, "so, you ready for this, babe," she asked, "our first C-ranked mission?"

Her Naruto, ever the realist gave the matter some serious thought, "I think so, I believe it, forgetting Konoha rankings for a moment, you, me, and Hinata-chan, are at least B-class ninja skill-wise, but without mission experience, we're mid-C-class ninja overall. My aunt has told me, that each mission type is an order of magnitude greater in difficulty than the previous ranking," he added, "and the first time a ninja goes on each mission rank it opens their eyes in different ways." He had his hands resting on Sakura's hips as he answered her, he was subconsciously rubbing up and down her flanks, she did not mind at all, his calloused hands felt good to her. This was indicative of how casual their intimacy has become, since they began dating, he suddenly smiled as he felt her ninja tool pouch digging into his thigh, it was the same as his, "I can see you're taking precautions, Sakura-chan," Naruto noted to his girlfriend, "you're wearing a full complement of kunai and shuriken, even if you don't need them."

Sakura barked a laugh, reaching down to grab his own tool pouch, "look who's talking, mister, you're loaded for bear too."

Naruto laughed with her, "that I am, Saku-chan," he nodded, "but it was more of a way to hide my true skills, than utility… what is it, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura's eyes had grown wide as he told his reasoning for including, regular kunai and shuriken, she shook her head to make herself focus, "you know, they say a couple that thinks alike is bound together by Fate," Naruto nodded, he had heard that meme before, but she went on with her explanation, "that was the reasoning I had when I put this back on," she said, touching the tool pouch. She pulled another tool pouch out of her bag, "I even brought one for you, I was going to suggest we wear this and hide our primary weapons to disguise our true skills…" as Naruto brought out the one he put together for her, her eyes just looked at his, and at that moment, they knew they were looking at their soulmates.

"Sakura-chan, I… I feel… I don't want to say it, because it feels like it's too early, but I…" Naruto did not know how to say, he Loved Sakura, without actually saying the words, he could feel it in his gut that it was not time to say that phrase yet.

Sakura placed her hand over his mouth, to stop him, "I know, baby," she said, "and I feel the same way, but it's too early to say that, it's enough for me to know that you feel that way," she bit her lip considering what she wanted to say, "and I do too."

"You do," Naruto asked in wonder?

Sakura grabbed his uniform shirt and brought him in for a fierce kiss, then when she pulled back her eyes flashed with a passion, he only saw during their most ardent make-out sessions, "with every fiber of my being, Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto just smiled, then stepped-back, removing his family blade while running through a plethora of hand-signs. Then biting into his thumb to draw some blood, he smeared his sword with his essence, before turning his sword to point straight-up, and said, "Summoning Technique: Totsuka no Tsurugi: Kāishǐ (Commence)!" Naruto released the hilt of his sword, which instead of falling to the floor, remained in place as it was suspended in mid-air. It vibrated for a bit before vanishing from sight, it seemed to shrink into nothingness. "Now, no matter where I am, I can summon my sword, I'm probably going to keep it that way, so I don't have to think about it so much when I move," Naruto absently commented.

Sakura grinned, before pulling her snake-blades from her back, and began furling them about her body. Sakura had made efficient use of her Plasma Clones in the last three months, she used them to practice using her snake-blades, or as she came to call them, her Angels. At this point, Sakura's use of them had become so intrinsic to her, that it was almost like these weapons, had been made exclusively for her. The way she used them, combined with the power and sensuality, she learned from Anko-chan in her Hebi no kiba taijutsu training, made Naruto have to turn his lower body to the side to hide the truth of his excitement from her. She had a predatory smile on her face, before she winked, he was not hiding anything from her, which made her feel proud as a woman to be able to elicit that kind of response from her boyfriend.

Sakura began to create a summoning jutsu for her weapons. She copied Naruto's actions from a few seconds ago, except she did not bite her thumb, she intentionally cut them on the blades while they were in motion. "Summoning Technique: Tenshi: Kāishǐ," she said, a small orifice opened into what appeared to be the very Earth itself, it was really the pocket dimension she created to store her blades. Her Angels seemed to slither into the place she had created for them, tip first, then the hole closed, and they were gone.

Naruto gave her the kunai pouch he made for her, which she strapped to her backside, posterior to her billy-clubs. Sakura gave him the pouch she made for him, which he strapped outboard of his thigh opposite his own pouch. It almost felt like they were exchanging vows, when they exchanged weapons with each other.

Sakura decided to make an observation, "with the weapons pouch you gave me, in a weird way, it feels like your hand is cupping my ass. I kinda like it, bae," she finished huskily.

_Two can play at this game_, he thought with a grin, "the fact that your pouch, feels like you're about to reach for my bollocks doesn't bother me either, Saku-chan," he said, with his tongue pressed between his teeth. "I can't wait for the real thing," he concluded, and the rosy blush on her cheeks was all he needed to see. He held out his hand, and she took it, "Let's go, we need to be at the gate soon, to meet Tazuna-san," he commented, they walked hand in hand into the family-room.

When they reached the room, they found everybody seated on the couches or in various chairs within the room, they were all engrossed in their own talk. Kurenai was chatting with Anko and Hana, casting surreptitious glances in Naruto and Sakura's direction. Kiba was laughing at something with Hinata while scratching the back of his head, to Naruto he seemed to be flirting with her, to Sakura, Hinata seemed to be reciprocating his advances. Yugao and Hayate seemed to be holding a similar conversation to the one Naruto and Sakura just finished in the hallway, they were just sitting in the loveseat, lost in their own little world. The Inu-nin were laying on their sides in their own little pile, Akamaru and the Haimaru triplets were brothers, from the same sire.

Naruto cleared his throat to make his and Sakura's presence known. This prompted Yugao to stand-up from Hayate's lap and begin bustling around the room. She went to the side-board and took a tray of drinks and went around the room putting a shot-glass into every hand. The shots were of sakè, "okay, this is a tradition the Uzumaki would partake in when they became adults, and began to take their place in society, with Blood Squad about to undertake its first mission outside the village, this seemed to be the perfect opportunity to do this. So, if you will all raise your glasses," they all did, "To Blood Squad on their first mission, may we represent our Village with honor."

"Blood Squad, formidable while separate, unbeatable together," Naruto toasted.

"Blood Squad, give them Hell," Kiba decreed, "but come back safely, together."

"Here, Here," Hana agreed to her brother's benediction.

"To Blood Squad, may we all learn each experience, but never give up that which makes us strong, our uniqueness," Hayate declared.

"To Blood Squad on our first mission, we will destroy our foes and look good doing it," Sakura quipped.

"To Blood Squad on their first mission, Gato won't know what hit him," Anko declared.

"To my team, no matter what happens, we will get through anything together," Kurenai decreed, "and one more standing order for you all, no dying."

"To Sakura-chan, Naruto-kun, and Kurenai-sensei, we will make the mountains tremble with our passage, and rivers slow as we cross them," Hinata exclaimed, "our story will be Epic," and they all drank their sakè.

* * *

Gone to Wave

The original Blood Squad were many hours outside the Village Hidden in the Leaves. At the moment the only ones present were Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, and Kurenai, not to mention Tazuna of Nami. The two ANBU were nowhere in sight, Naruto could not help the grin on his face, this was his first excursion out of Konoha in his whole life. Of course, he and Hinata knew they were being followed, and had been since the moment they set foot outside the Village. Naruto and Hinata's balaclavas were totally on, and up, their visors were flipped down over their eyes, and their dojutsu were on in full. Hinata was on point, while Naruto brought up the rear, Kurenai and Sakura were on the right and left of Tazuna-san, respectively, while the two ANBU were nowhere to be seen. It may be worth noting that all three of Naruto's ninjutsu: Surrogate Substitution, True Transformations, and Flash Clones, had been sold to the ANBU corps, which brought a nice chunk of change to the Uzumaki compound, and had also been included in the Scroll of Seals as Kinjutsu.

They knew what the two following them looked like, and even who they are, Meizu and Gozu, aka, the demon brothers, missing ninja from Kirigakure. They were known to associate with the S-ranked missing ninja, Jūzō Biwa, the wielder of Kubikiribōchō. Jūzō by himself was reputed to be a near nightmare to fight, but Jūzō, plus the Severing sword, was said to die the battlefields red with blood.

It was late afternoon, and in the midst of a particularly, hot summer, when Naruto sensed something… insulting. The demon brothers had apparently grown tired of following them and decided to ambush them, that was not the insulting part, that came in the form of their chosen cover. The brothers were trying to show-off their training and chose to hide their ambush, by hiding in a puddle of free-standing water. The only problem with that tactic, it had been weeks since it rained, this was the dry season in the Land of Fire, one of the reasons it was called that, was due to its unusually, high temperatures in the summer. The second hottest on the continent, with only the desert lands of Kaze no Kuni going higher, and drier, if they were true ninja, they would have taken this into their calculations when setting their ambush.

"So, what should we do about them," Kurenai asked her genin, over the special communication devices, given to them by Hana and Kiba, as first mission gifts? They allowed the Inuzuka's non-canine partners to communicate with them, taking their voices and modulating the sound up and down the frequency scale, allowing humans without special abilities granted by the King of the Biju, or a bloodline limit to communicate freely? Kurenai had her own ideas but wanted to see what her students thought of the situation, "should we spring their ambush, or allow it to go forward?"

"Well, springing the ambush would reveal our capabilities, and some of our abilities," Naruto pointed out the obvious, which he knew they knew, but wanted to point it out to determine the likely consequences of such actions. They nodded their understanding, "and it is most likely these idiots were sent to test us, a guy like Biwa-san, wouldn't want to waste his time on small-fry."

"True, but letting it go forward will not accomplish anything, they'll likely target Tazuna-san and we already know why," Sakura stated, "if I were to attack our group, I'd go after Kurenai-sensei first, then try a feint at one of us, before suddenly veering off toward, Tazuna-san. If, _I_ didn't know anything about our capabilities, all I would see, was a typical Genin team on a mission," she told them as her powerful mind, turned the situation over and over, "Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan are dressed enough alike to likely be siblings, I'm dressed differently enough with my shemagh, the only one they might've heard of is you, Kurenai-sensei."

Kurenai smile, "it's likely, and I am in the Book of Shinobi as Crimson Mirage, so they likely know my method of attack will be using Genjutsu. The first rule of strategy, is never do what your enemy expects you to do," their sensei lectured, "but always do what they expect you not to."

"Actually, the rule of thumb is to be unpredictable," Hinata corrected, "and I don't see what the issue is, we know they're there, most of the power of an ambush comes from the surprise of your enemy. There's no reason, why we cannot incorporate elements from both options," Hinata reasoned.

"What do you have in mind, Hinata-chan," Naruto asked?

By the time the party came even with the supposed innocuous puddle of water, they had shifted positions so Kurenai was bringing up the rear. They had apparently grown complacent as the journey wore on, and had allowed their vigilance to wane, the two kunoichi were in the middle, chatting about girly-things. There was a lot of giggling involved in whatever they were talking about, as one or both seemed to cast conspiratorial glances in the blonde shinobi's direction, who had migrated to take point, leaving Tazuna terribly alone and isolated.

The demon brothers weighed their options, wondering if they should change their battle-plan, but decided against it, their first target could not possibly be in better position for springing their trap. The entire party had walked by and were a few paces passed the puddle, when they rose out of the puddle, one atop the other. Once they were completely out of the water, the one on top combined a leap with a throw from the one on bottom, and together they launched the top one through the air. They ended up entangling the raven-haired beauty, with a deadly-looking chain, that seemed to be attached to a pair of gruesome-looking gauntlets.

"Oh no," Sakura exclaimed in fright!

"What," came Naruto's astonished bellow?

"Do it," the two-horned Meizu, which was truly the only way to tell them apart, ordered, and they pulled on the chain hard, their combined might, caused the chain to rip through Blood Squad's sensei like a chainsaw through paper.

"Kurenai-sensei," Naruto called out in alarm, before he felt the wind blow behind him as the Chunin from Mist, appeared behind Naruto, laughing at his shock and fright!

"Now, it's your turn," one of them stated as they brought their chains up and would have wrapped it around him.

Naruto suddenly smirked, "psych," and he was gone in a plume of smoke, and in his place was Gozu, who just had time for his eyes to go wide, before he met the same fate as Kurenai.

"How was that possible," then Meizu remembered, who they had supposedly killed a moment before, a genjutsu master, "of course?" Then focusing he yelled, "Kai!" There was a flash of light and the world returned to normal, but it was still too late, because he watched the blonde one, that they had intended to use as a feint, break his brother's nose. Gozu felt a hard smash on the back of his head, but the last thing he saw was a flight of six-Onmyō (Canada) geese, flying sedately to the west, one of them seemed to be carrying a scroll on its back.

* * *

Nightmare in the Mist

The air was as opaque as a blanket, visibility, was down to zero, and the wind was utterly still, it was as quiet as a tomb. Through this foggy atmosphere, a boat moved through the water, normally this boat, a small-time fisherman's vessel too insignificant for Gato to even try to buy out, would be maneuvering through the channel between Fire and Wave with its tiny motor going full blast. This morning, however, was different because as insignificant as this ferryman was in terms of acquiring businesses, it would not be the case if he was caught by Gato, helping the very man trying to break-up his business venture. This auxiliary for Charon, had some truly august passengers today, Nami no Tazuna, Konoha no Sakura, Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyūga, and Kurenai Yūhi, were making their way to the not-so-sunny coasts of Nami no Kuni, to guard Tazuna from the minions of the fiend known as, Gato.

An enterprise that aforementioned fiend, would surely frown upon, therefore, it behooved the boatman to conduct this service as quietly as possible. "This fog is so thick, you can't see anything," the rosette kunoichi commented, sitting on the port-side gunwale, directly opposite the Hyūga, toward the aft section of the boat was their sensei, and behind her was Tazuna directly in front of the steersman, in the bow of the boat was Naruto.

"Bridge isn't far, now," the ferryman's voice, seemed to cut through the silence like a knife in the stomach, "our destination, the Land of Waves, is just ahead."

Naruto's nose was not picking up much in this fog, having his balaclava up, was just a waste of time, so he kept it pushed back and down on his shoulders. Being in the front of the boat, allowed him to understand the scope and scale of the bridge their client was trying to build, they passed along the bridge quite close, but even as close as they were, they could not see the top, barely making-out the scaffolding and construction equipment. "Whoa, it's huge," Naruto suddenly yelled!

"Wha… quiet," the boatman scolded, "I told you, no noise, why do you think we're traveling like this?" The ferryman, continued to berate the Genin, "turning off the engine and rowing, moving… in the dense fog, it's so they don't see us!"

Naruto humorously clamped a hand over his own mouth, Sakura was looking at him in rebuke, Hinata was sporting a condescending smile, but Kurenai was looking hard at the bridge builder. "_Tazuna_-san," Kurenai began like a mother chiding her child, "before we reach the pier, I want to know something." Tazuna refused to look at her, "the ones who are after you, I need to know, why? If you don't tell us, this mission ends as soon as we put you ashore."

After a long explanation, which was all for the ears that were definitely listening in the mists, they were sensed quite easily, with Naruto's radar-sense. Well, there were only two, and the speed with which they moved while scouting definitely said they were ninja, their movement efficiency said they were quite skilled both of them equaling Kurenai-sensei, while one of them moved even better than her. That one seemed to have a broad-profile on one-side, but a more rounded section as well, that told Naruto exactly who it was, the broad-section tapered to a point on one end, could that be the infamous, Kubikiribōchō?

They approached an entrance tunnel to the wharf, it would take them well into Wave Nation, "Tazuna, we are very fortunate," the boatman said to the bridge-builder, "no one has noticed us, so far."

"Nice going," Tazuna appraised. _Oh, but they have noticed us,_ _boatman,_ Naruto thought, overhead the call of geese was heard in the distance, it was the only sound that could be heard in the still atmosphere, _that's the point, I'm sorry to say, but you're expendable compared to our client. As am I_, Naruto thought grimly.

The fog was starting to lift by the time they set foot on a lonely, secluded dock, just within sight of the magnificent. "That's as far as I go," the ferryman declared, "good luck."

"Right," Tazuna accepted, "thank you for taking such a risk."

"Just be careful," the ferryman admonished, as he started up his motor and sped away into the distance.

Tazuna turned to the rest of the party, "okay, take me home, and I mean get me there in one-piece!"

"Of course," Kurenai confirmed. _Biwa-san, is definitely going to attack, he must be impatient to get paid_, Naruto surmised, then chuckled to himself, _he must really despise working for Gato, all articles I've read on him say that he's a real piece of work, conducting his business like a crime syndicate._

Naruto, was leading the way again, using his senses to tell him exactly where his adversaries were, he suddenly ran a few paces forward and stopped. He took out a kunai and threw it randomly into the bushes, "over there," he shouted, like an over-eager puppy.

Kurenai rushed over to the place he sent the kunai, and chuckled, "good news, kids, there wasn't an enemy behind these bushes," she stated holding up a dead, snow-white rabbit, extracting Naruto's kunai from its skull, "bad news, Naruto-kun is cooking dinner tonight." They all chuckled along with her, though it was on the outside only, _that's a snow rabbit_, Kurenai thought, _but they only have white-fur during winter, when snow is on the ground, it camouflages them allowing them to escape from many of their predators. It's mid-summer, right now, meaning it's been raised indoors away from sunlight, which can only be for one purpose, a substitution technique. So, they're going to try us here,_ she decided.

Jūzō had been watching this group from the trees, with a critical-eye, he did not get to be the rank of S-ranked ninja, by taking chances or underestimating his opponents. While on the surface, this appeared to be your typical Konoha, Genin team, the efficiency of movement the blonde one displayed spoke of considerable skill. Plus, he was able to actually inflict a mortal wound on a substituted opponent, also said a lot about his skill, it is possible there was more to him than meets the eyes. _This Naruto's sensei, also happens to be the famed Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha herself, second only to the Nidaime Mizukage's Genjutsu skill. I guess the Demon Brothers failed,_ he concluded, _I wonder what has become of them?_ This meant fighting this group will be difficult, because he will not be able to trust his senses, he will have to rely on his instincts and experience, luckily, he had faced many genjutsu masters in his time, and they all added their blood to the fields he painted.

"I think, Shiroyuki should keep the kunoichi occupied, while I keep company with the shinobi and their sensei," Biwa said, while giving a discrete flare of his chakra, much like the dot-dash code. This relayed his plan to his weapon, and when he received the confirmation code, he waited for the attack to commence. Jūzō felt the moisture of the air become more oppressive, meaning his weapon was beginning the attack. Several small projectiles of water, coalesced from the accumulated moisture, and rushed toward the backs of the unsuspecting females, _if they fell for that, then they didn't deserve to be called kunoichi, my mother would've just called them fan-girls that deserved their deaths._

Just as the water-needles were about to hit their mark, the one with the balaclava moved her palm and began swatting the water-senbon out of the air. She moved with the grace of a dancer, her body appeared to have been encased in a shield made of air, she combined grace with dexterity. The other one, once she saw the projectiles, seemed to swim around the needles, her torso would move in one direction, while her limbs and lower-body moved the rest of her someplace else. Her style was built to entice and lead one into a trap, but there was definite power there, _mom would approve of both of them._ Then Shiroyuki appeared in front of the one in the shemagh, sweeping at her leg, but then the one in the jacket appeared beside them, and just as her teammate began to fall, she helped her by grabbing her torso. This added a fulcrum, allowing the fall to turn into a back-flip, while at the same time, the one in the balaclava threw a raiton-chakra, infused punch at Shiroyuki's head. A punch that was already augmented by the metal on the backfist of the gloves, Shiroyuki's swiftly realigned head prevented the punch from landing. The shemagh wearer, reached toward her thigh and drew a pair of hanbo, before rushing back into the fray. She combined her taijutsu with her weapons movements, her weapons became extensions of her body.

As the fight between the kunoichi raged, Naruto was watching from the sidelines, he could have helped them and would have, but for a few things. Firstly, if this was an attack by the enemy it was just the opening barrage, meant to test them, the real attack from Jūzō-san could come any moment, and he would not abandon his sensei just to have some fun. Secondly, it meant that their plans were working, and finally, the movements of Sakura and Hinata's bodies said they were having fun, and both of them would flay him if he interfered. Besides, their main priority was the bridge builder, Naruto made the cross-finger-sign and twenty Kage Bunshin appeared, surrounding Tazuna. Naruto wanted to deploy his dojutsu, but it was not yet time to reveal his trump card.

"I am honored," a gravelly voice said from behind them. Naruto and Kurenai whirled around at the sound, "to think a lonely man like myself, gets to share this dance floor with someone as lovely as the Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha. It is no wonder the Demon Brothers failed," Juzo surmised, "they were simply outclassed. What has become of my wayward apprentices?"

Their initial surprise was short-lived, Naruto glanced at his sensei and shook his head, which brought a nod of understanding from her, _stall._ Kurenai turns to see a man, a slender and tall shinobi — about the same height as the sword he wielded, standing on top of the nearby body of water, his hand and arm in an unusual formation, and from the way the water under his feet churned, he was obviously calling upon his chakra and it was a massive Suitonjutsu. The man on the water, to Naruto, just seemed to be the personification of menace, he has not felt this feeling, since he was extremely young, the two years he spent on the street. That was one of the most traumatic events of his life thus far, he can hardly think back on that era without remembering the ever-present feel of fear. Well, it was like someone had condensed all of that same fear from the entire period of time and coalesced it, into the man standing atop the water in front of him.

Jūzō Biwa, also known as, Nightmare from the Mist, S-ranked rogue ninja, of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, who wielded Decapitating Carving Knife – every kenjutsu user worth the name knew about the Seven Blades of the Mist – had no eyebrows, just creases under his eyes, and a cross shaped scar on his right cheek. His hair and eyes are dark gray in color and his hair is short and spiky. He has light tan skin. He also had a red grid-shaped marking covering his jaw. He wore a black, tight-fitting sleeveless, shirt with two light, thin stripes on his chest, a striped cloth belt and light pants, along with black-arm covers, extending from his hands to his biceps. Jūzō, also wore bandages around his neck and face, which also covered his ears, and like all the members of the Seven, had pointed teeth, like a shark.

Naruto knew that Jūzō-san was trying to intimidate them, by intentionally releasing his Killer Intent (KI), well it was, at least, working on him. The only reason he did not run away, was because his love for Sakura, Hinata, and Kurenai, was more powerful than the fear the Swordsman extracted from him. Love always conquers fear, and consumes the fires of anger and hatred, with its hotter, but gentler flames. Kurenai saw Naruto pluck up his courage, she was proud of her student, not many would be able to overcome the kind of pressure Biwa-san was exerting, let alone a Genin. _That's one of the reasons, among so many that make me love you, Naruto, and I truly envy Sakura for being the focus of your heart._ She placed all of her attention back onto their enemy, and smiled a charmed smile, "I am truly flattered, that such a powerful shinobi such as yourself, would know about a humble kunoichi, like me. You needn't worry about your pupils," she told him, "they are getting acquainted with Konoha, at the moment, more specifically, Ibiki Morino and Anko Mitarashi, what happens to them after that is up to the Hokage."

Jūzō merely returned the smile,with a satisfied one, which showed off his shark-like teeth, "of course, Kurenai, the Crimson Mirage, a genjutsu prodigy, considered to be Konoha's number one genjutsu user, whose skills are said to rival those of even Shisui and Itachi Uchiha. Capable of discerning the truth in an instant and luring enemies to a place far beyond genjutsu, and into the subconscious mind to see a person's 'true nature,' and quite often mistaken for an Uchiha, with those eyes of hers." They continued to appraise each other, taking their measure, he grew serious, "now that the pleasantries are over, I need you to hand over, the old man."

"That would be quite impossible, at this juncture," Kurenai asserted, "he's our client after all. It wouldn't be very good for Konoha, if we started letting our clients fall into enemy hands, _every time _we get waylaid by enemy ninja. I'm prepared to die for him," Kurenai growled, as her crimson-eyes seemed to shine with an ethereal glow, "are you prepared to do the same, Jūzō-san, to die for an old fart like him?"

"Well," Jūzō-san rasped, "looks like I get to see the Crimson Mirage in action, this is an honor," their enemy declared solemnly, "will you show me the Crimson Skies I've heard from my peers?"

Kurenai smiled like a cat that just ate the canary, "maybe, if I deem you worthy, I have _many_ skills," she stated, while cocking her hips to the side seductively, "that dojutsu is just one of many, I possess."

Jūzō-san just laughed, "if you're attempting to beguile me with your charms, you'll find I'm quite immune to your blandishments, unlike say that Genin standing next to you." Naruto blushed, he had thought by remaining professional, no one would notice how his sensei was getting to him, he was a totally committed boyfriend, but when a woman as hot as Kurenai Yūhi begins acting sexy, that shit is hard to ignore. Kurenai said nothing, _at least, I know the guy I've fallen for finds me attractive._ "In truth, he is far more appealing to me than you are, Yūhi-san," Jūzō admitted, "just give him a few years and to me he'd be just right."

Naruto, to his credit did not blush, his aunt had raised him to be fairly open-minded about such things, still, "I'm flattered, Jūzō-san," he began, "but men are ugly, smelly, disgusting creatures to me, not appealing at all accept as friends and comrades."

"As for you, Jonin-kun," Jūzō-san continued, "there was a standing order among all Mist ninja, to capture you, and bring you back to the village, or destroy you on sight. Your stats were in are Bingo Book," their enemy informed them, "but enough talk, I must exterminate, the old man, now!"

"I just told you, Jūzō-san," Kurenai repeated, "that… will be impossible in this place."

"So," taking her answer as more defiance, "Kurenai-kun, it seems I need to eliminate you first, so be it." A mist even thicker than the natural fog from just an hour-ago, billowed into existence, "Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu!" The world around them was enveloped in a thick blanket of mist that surrounded Naruto and Kurenai, they could still hear the sounds of fighting to one-side as the kunoichi battle still raged, they apparently were not covered in the mist, just these two.

"Sensei," Naruto warned.

"Naruto-kun, he'll come after me first," Kurenai reminded him.

"Be careful, Sensei," Naruto admonished, then continued in low frequency, below normal human hearing, something her ear piece picked up, "remember that tattoo on his lower jaw and lip area?" At her nod he continued, "I recognized it from my Seal Training, it's a pain seal, it was used by the Uzumaki as a ward against genjutsu, it's a countermeasure they used. Whenever someone used a genjutsu on a person with that mark, it flared like fire which caused the genjutsu to fail," he explained to her.

Kurenai narrowed her eyes, "don't fret Naruto-kun, if what your saying is true, then my genjutsu may still work, just not the way I intended. If we fail, we only lose our lives," Kurenai concluded.

"Right," Naruto agreed.

One of the Kage Bunshin voiced his observations, "man, this mist is getting thicker as we speak!"

"The Land of Waves is surrounded entirely by the ocean," Tazuna explained, "so fog and mist accumulate very easily. You could say, we're in the perfect environment for our enemy to fight us, all of the advantages are currently in his favor, but not for long."

"Eight points," came Jūzō-san's disembodied voice, "larynx, spine, lungs, the liver… jugular, and subclavian arteries, kidneys, the heart. Now, which will be my kill point," the voice asked?

Kurenai, made the ram seal, and flared her chakra, pushing back some of the mist, "Naruto calm-down, I'll protect you with my life, I would never be able to face your Aunt if I let anything happen to you, I would sooner take my own life than allow you to die!"

"Your conviction does you credit, Crimson Mirage," Jūzō-san's voice spoke from near the clone group, then Jūzō appeared right next to the group, "it's over!" However instead of standing their ground, they substituted themselves, but left behind several explosive kunai, and only one clone.

"Dai-bakufu," the clone stated, before it exploded, adding its explosive force to the kunai, ironically the water clone's substance leveled as much landscape as the exploding clone and kunai!

Another Jūzō appeared behind Kurenai and slashed his Kubikiribōchō through her torso, "DIE," he yelled, but instead of that, Kurenai's body disintegrated into a shower of cherry blossoms! Jūzō's face suddenly flared in pain, like it was on fire, and the genjutsu placed upon him to lure to a specific place, broke. He found Kurenai waiting where she was manipulating him to be, with a kunai ready to slit his throat, and he chuckled at the shocked look on her face, "I forgot to tell you, genjutsu doesn't work on me."

"Yeah, figured as much," she replied, then added, "but then, it did exactly what I wanted it to do, distract you long enough for me to get behind you." Jūzō's eyes widened, when he felt the point of a kunai jabbing into the base of his skull, "Don't move, Jūzō-san," Kurenai ordered, "even the toughest, masochistic ninja, can still become distracted by pain, it takes mental concentration to ignore pain, which if I'm not mistaken is the key to your ninjutsu. In order to cause all of this moisture to rise and condense, you must concentrate, and I imagine that it's a balancing act, you have to condense enough moisture out of the air to make things opaque, but too much and it falls like rain, too little, and you won't achieve your goal. Like deceiving us into believing that this is you, and not another water-clone," Kurenai revealed, while looking behind her to see another Jūzō-san already making his swing at her.

Kurenai quickly ducked below the swing, which caused her to lose a few strands of hair, not to mention destroy the water-clone, but the swing had so much force behind it, that it buried itself into the Earth behind Jūzō. He still used the momentum of his swing, to add extra power to an already powerful kick, which sent Kurenai flying. Before Kurenai even landed, Jūzō grabbed the Sever Sword and rushed forward, moving so fast the air was whistling past his body, he spotted an obstruction and came to an abrupt stop, "makibishi spikes… she's trying to slow me down, how foolish!"

Kurenai went into the water, just as Jūzō flipped over her little road block, she surfaced a few moments later, _that's strange, there's something odd about this water, its dense. Denser than water should normally be_, Kurenai narrowed her eyes, _it's a trap._ Jūzō lited upon the surface of the water and raced over to stand above her, he had placed the great sword onto his back, on a magnetic harness in the center of his torso. He began to rapidly move through hand signs, "Foolish kunoichi," he named her, then, "Water Prison jutsu!" A dome of water, rose up and surrounded Kurenai, "Escaping into the water," Jūzō stated, "big mistake." He began a malicious chuckle, and started explaining the rudiments of his jutsu, "this prison is made of water, but it's stronger than steel." He brought his free hand up and began to focus his attention, "Water Clone jutsu!" Jūzō turned his head to look at Naruto, "stay still, kunoichi-kun, it's only while my hand is within the dome, that you may continue breathing. Now, I will have a talk with your Genin, my weapon should be finishing off the kunoichi of your team," he motioned for his clone to attack.

Rather than become concerned, Kurenai took on a curious expression, "this should be interesting, Jūzō-san," she sounded more like a fight spectator, than a sensei concerned for her student.

Jūzō ignored her comment and turned to Naruto and sneered at him, "do you think wearing a headband, makes you a ninja," he asked in derision, "when you've hovered between life and death so many times that it no longer fazes you, and earned a place in my Bingo Book, then you may call yourself a ninja. To call an upstart like you a ninja, is an insult to the title," he stated as he drew the mist tightly around them closing the curtain on their vision.

Just as the mist closed off his vision, Naruto immediately began to receive flashes of images, of Tazuna embracing his daughter, while his aunt and Hayate looked on in bemusement. Then the image turned, and Naruto saw the path leading from the water's edge to the front-door of Tazuna's house, from the shore to about a third of the way there the tracks showed three-sets of webbed-feet, there he saw that a storage scroll remained on the ground, and from there four sets of human tracks continued to the door of the house.

Naruto tapped his communication device, "Sakura, honey, how are things going over there," he asked, while he began a series of hand signs?

"We're about even in skill to this kunoichi, dear," Sakura answered, "she's activated some sort of mirrored ice-prison that allows her to move between them very quickly, its only thanks to Hinata-chan that I don't have more wounds than I do already." She heard him gasp over the air, and smiled tenderly for his concern, "it's nothing major, Naruto, you've given me worse than this when we spar, and despite not holding back you always seem to go easier on me, than Hinata. Don't deny it," Sakura admonished him!

"Well, anyway, I've just gotten confirmation, Tazuna has made it safely home," he explained the reason for his call, while continuing the hand signs, "so, you can do whatever you need to get back to me."

"Roger that, babe," Sakura sounded relieved, "see you soon."

Naruto finished all of that just in time to jump out of the way of a kick from the clone of Jūzō, when he landed, he brought his foot down hard, which released his chakra into the ground. There seemed to be a hollow thrum, as if his stomp caused a reverberation in the Earth, "Ninja art: Dust Devil," the very dust on the ground, began to rise into the air and started swirling into a vortex, this was not wind driven, but chakra driven. The vortex began to send out dirt particles, and they began attaching themselves to the water molecules of Jūzō's water-based chakra, the dirt became mud, even the water-clone was consumed by the plague of dirt, which forced it to its knees. Finally, the dusty, now muddy vortex collapsed, and with it, so did the clone, the dust devil did what it was meant to do, clear the air of moisture, breaking the Hidden Mist jutsu.

Jūzō did not let his surprise show on his face, but inside, he was dumbfounded that any Genin could disrupt his jutsu, one he has mastered and used many times to dispatch hundreds of Jonin-level ninja. Earth users included, and not one of them has ever figured out how to counter his ninjutsu, _who is this kid?_ "Who taught you that, boy," Jūzō demanded to know?

"Nobody, I just made it up on the spot, every riddle has a solution," Naruto answered truthfully, "but all further inquiries should be directed to, Boss," he stated, thumb-pointing behind him to see, not-Tazuna, striding onto the field with a resolved attitude.

"The old man," Jūzō wondered, then saw the old man's form liquify, then shrink and reform into…

"Naruto Uzumaki, pleased to meet you, Jūzō-san," the blonde declared, then looked at his clone, "trade with sensei, please, you did a good job being me."

The clone smiled, "that's because I am you, Boss," then there was a flash of light and Kurenai was standing where the Flash Clone once stood, in her place in the prison was the clone. He promptly grabbed Jūzō's hand, which brought him out of his surprise.

"Let go, brat," Jūzō roared, "let go!"

The clone just laughed, using chakra to adhere to Jūzō-san's hand, "this is you're sword arm, is it not, Jūzō-san, you let your S-ranking go to your head," the Naruto-bunshin chided him, "you should never allow this arm to become occupied with anything but a weapon? That's sword art lesson number one," he rebuked the man, "at least among the Uzumaki clan."

On the shore while Jūzō was distracted by the Senko Bunshin, the original pulled a collapsible Fuma shuriken from his pack, giving it to his sensei, "I assume you know how to use this, Kurenai-sensei?"

"Of course, Genin Uzumaki," she said, with a smile, "Jonin are required to be familiar with every tool of our trade." Kurenai unfolded the wicked looking piece of steel, this one was of a different design than Mizuki's a few months ago. Where his, had four-points of lethality, meant to puncture the enemy, this giant shuriken, also called, demon-wind shuriken, had four-arms with an edge on each arm, this one was meant to maim or decapitate your enemy. Kurenai did not need the same wind-up to throw this one as Mizuki, such is the difference in power and experience, between Jonin and Chunin, she merely caused it to spin and threw it.

There is a reason, Jūzō-san is an S-ranked ninja, some things are just ingrained with so much experience. Despite his preoccupation with the Flash Clone, still in his prison, "You're smart, boy," Jūzō-san was still aware of his surroundings, including when he was under attack, almost on instinct he reached out his other arm and caught the flying weapon, in the safest way possible, by the center orifice, "but not smart enough!" Jūzō-san made his comment a little too soon, however, because right behind the first shuriken, flying in its shadow came another demon-wind shuriken, both of his hands were occupied, surely, he was staring his death in the face, just at the last minute however, the ninja jumped, just barely missing having his body cut in-half.

That shuriken was not what it seemed, however, because it suddenly reversed course, spinning rapidly, back toward the missing ninja. Just before it would have hit Jūzō-san, it morphed into another Naruto. This Naruto wrapped his arms and legs around Jūzō-san's body, this Naruto was using his magnetic bloodline to stick to the sword on Jūzō-san's back. The Naruto standing next to his sensei, was the original, he looked upon the man he faced, not with arrogance or superiority, but with respect, the look was returned. "Thank you, Genin," and Naruto snapped his fingers…

At Tazuna's home a mile or so away, they watch as a blinding white-light, volcanos high into the darkening sky, it seems to almost turn night into day. Not even a second later the power of such an explosion could be felt as a series of seismic tremors, not quite an earthquake but it caused a few trees, old and deeply rooted in the soil to sway in their beds. "My Kami," Tazuna and his daughter, Tsunami say together, the sight of the explosion, temporarily overcoming his cynicism, "what in the Naraku, was that," Tazuna asked?

"That's my nephew, sending a soul to Tengoku," Yugao deduced, solemnly.

* * *

**Glossary**

**Naraku** \- Hell

**Tengoku** \- Heaven


	9. Tides

**Illumination**

_Tides_

High Tides

Sakura stared at the poor, unfortunate victim of her boyfriend's deception. The snow rabbit dangling from her sensei's hand, was now a casualty of this mission. Normally, Sakura would have lamented the meaningless demise of the poor animal, and the Uchiha fan girl she pretended to be in the Academy would have admonished Naruto for killing such a cute and defenseless creature. That Sakura would have sickened her, not only for being a complete bitch to Naruto, but for failing to notice the abnormal state of the rabbit's fur. Now, she acknowledged the warning her boyfriend brought to their attention, and made a note to thank him, _properly_, when they were alone. _As long as he's okay, after this fight_, she added to herself, then prayed, _please let him be okay, Kami-sama, this is an S-ranked ninja we're fighting._

Behind the rosette, several water needles, began to form out of the suddenly dense atmosphere. "Sakura-chan, look out," Hinata's scream brought Sakura out of her thoughts, as the Hyuga suddenly whirled between her teammate and the projectiles of water! Hinata's palms were wreathed in chakra as she danced between them and Sakura, swatting them out from the air, scattering them all. "Eight Trigrams: Air Shield," she stated, and Hinata's arms began moving extremely fast, causing the chakra to become visible, until what appeared to be a dome of solid air, but really was just her hands and arms, moving so fast they looked like a solid shield, surrounded the Hyuga heiress, effectively destroying the senbon needles.

As effective as Hinata's sudden defense of Sakura was, one needle manages to slip past the Hyuga princess, and punctures Sakura's right arm. The rosette, hisses in pain when the needle sticks into her, she looks at it, but does not have time to examine the wound. She decides to ignore it for the moment, except to remove and throw it away, but it did shock her out of her musings. Sakura looks around, noticing that water needles were pelting them from everywhere. She begins to loosen her joints, swaying as if from an unfelt breeze, evading other needles as she made her body move using the taijutsu style her roommate taught her.

Sakura was taken completely by surprise when a figure wearing a Hunter Ninja mask, rushed low into Sakura's line-of-sight. Sakura barely had time to gather any details on the person, before Sakura's feet were swept out from under her. Before she could fall however, Hinata was there holding Sakura by the middle, adding a fulcrum, allowing the shemagh wearing kunoichi to flip out of the potential fall. As soon as Sakura was clear, the Hyuga infused her fist with lightning, launching a straight punch at the face of the anonymous hunter-nin. Just before impact, their adversary bent his head out of the way, before somersaulting away from the point of impact.

Sakura stood back from the brawl between her teammate and the hunter-nin, she had time to analyze their opponent. He was wearing a gray, pinstriped shirt, and hakama, commonly found in Kirigakure, over which was a sea-foam green haori, with white trim, and a brown, fringed sash, wrapped twice around his waist. The hunter-nin also wore light-brown platoon sandals, with straps in the same color as the kimono, and nail polish on fingernails and toes, matching the blue-green color. He wore a hunter-nin mask, which was white, with thin, curved eye holes, and a red wavy design in place of the mouth, as well as a Kirigakure symbol etched in the top.

Sakura's observation took a fraction of a second, with practiced ease, she pulls her babies from their resting place on her left thigh. The chain-swords given to her by her Naruto were her Angels, and she was not yet ready for the world to hear them sing. Sakura's Babies, also given to her by Naruto, were just right for this occasion, and there was more to them than met the eye. Sakura began to flow through the water senbon, like a dragon on the high winds, with Hinata keeping this hunter-nin's attention occupied, the pink-haired kunoichi reached his side and lashed out with her hanbo. Her attack struck the elite ninja in the left flank, but instead of striking flesh she felt the unmistakable sound of her billy clubs, hitting a body of water.

The water clone evaporated like condensation on a window, immediately upon impact, leaving the kunoichi looking around in surprise. They immediately went back-to-back, staring at the surrounding landscape, they would not be taken from behind, if they could help it. Out of the mists, a form seemed to condense from the air. The hunter-nin seemed to be studying them intently, before _she_ spoke to them with a voice as soft and gentle as Hinata's own. "Please, stand-down, kunoichi-sans," the kunoichi Hunter-nin asked in a pleading voice, "I have no wish to harm you, I simply want the S-ranked ninja, Juzo Biwa, there is no need for you to get further involved… and needlessly injured."

Sakura's expression became contemplative, "surely, ryoshi-san, you wouldn't begrudge some help in taking on an S-ranked ninja," she asked in bewilderment?

The Hunter Ninja just sighed before dropping her head with a shameful shake, "I have been hunting, Biwa-san for some time now, and was preparing a way to take him down, when you and your team appeared out of nowhere. It is my duty to see this through," she added determinably.

"You shouldn't allow your pride and arrogance to dictate how you do your work, ryoshi-san," Hinata rebuked, "it has killed more warriors than any weapon ever could," her voice, while still soft, carried steel within it.

Their opponent started at the reprimand, "I am sorry, I did not mean to belittle your skills, but this is my job," she continued, "it is my purpose."

The Hyuga narrowed her eyes, and with an uncharacteristic growl, "so you're purpose is to deceive us, kunoichi-kun, to keep us focused on you, while your true self trapped us?" Without warning, Hinata clapped her hands, sending out a massive wave of vibrational energy, rippling out into the air. The ripples hit resistance in the form of the water droplets in the mist, which caused a chain reaction that pushed the fog out and away from their immediate area. The air, suddenly clear of visual obstruction revealed that they had been trapped within a dome-like structure. There were mirrors surrounding the Konoha kunoichi on all sides, even as they looked above them, at the summit of the dome. Held within the reflective surface of the mirrors, the image of the hunter-nin was being reflected back at them from every angle.

"Please," came the voice of the hunter-nin, "don't make me kill you," she pleaded.

"I wonder, kunoichi-meinu (bitch)," Sakura spat, "are you trying to protect your bounty, or are you trying to protect, Juzo Biwa-teme (bastard)?" Sakura was looking into one of the reflections and watched the kunoichi's eyes harden when she insulted, Juzo. _Thank you, Anko-nee, the lessons you taught me about reading body language have come in handy_, Sakura continued, "it won't matter, because he is as good as dead, right now, and no matter what happens here today, you will fail this mission." Sakura began twirling her hanbo, moving them up and down her body at blinding speeds.

The Hunter Ninja's eyes became outraged, but she tried to conceal her true emotions, pretending that Sakura had not completely insulted her partner. She tried to keep a tight rein on her temper, but despite masking her face, the rosette kunoichi could read her like an open book. The eyes are the windows to the soul, and her soul was bare to the world. Juzo Biwa was precious to this girl, he meant more to her than her own life. Without warning, senbon needles began raining down on the kunoichi from Konoha on all sides, pouring out of the mirrors like a torrential downpour.

This was what Sakura wanted, to make her opponent expend more chakra than she normally would if she was in a more reasonable frame of mind. Sakura channeled her own chakra into the hanbo, causing both of them to transform into a pair of nunchaku. She stepped away from her teammate to avoid hitting her with her weapons and began whirling them through the air, around her body, knocking the needles away from her. The only miscalculation Sakura made was the composition of the needles, because instead of needles made of water, they were made of pure metal.

While Sakura was distracting the ryoshi-nin, Hinata began to increase the vibrational energy in the air, causing the ambient temperature within the dome to increase incrementally. At the same time, Hinata infused fire chakra into her defense, "Eight Trigrams: Flare Shield," she muttered. "Sakura-chan, we need to try to get one of us outside the dome, that way one of us may begin destroying her mirrors," Hinata yelled!

"I'm on it, princess," Sakura yelled back, as she made a dash directly for one of the openings between the mirrors. She brought the ends of her hanbo together, which caused them to become a single weapon, the three-sectioned staff. Sakura spun her weapon over her head so fast it almost appeared to be an umbrella, protecting her from the rain of metal. Before Sakura could make it to the edge, the rain of needles abated as she saw a blur on the periphery of her vision, getting larger as it came near her, at the last minute before impact, Sakura swung her weapon towards the blur. The Ryoshi-nin evaded at the last possible moment and re-entered her mirrors, and the rain of senbon was renewed.

Over the alternative frequency comm device, the kunoichi from Konoha coordinated their defense, their goal here was not to win. Not yet at least, for the moment they were just trying to buy time for the rest of their team to make it to Tazuna's home. That was what Yugao and Hayate, along with a Flash clone of Naruto were doing, transporting their charge as a flock of geese, sealed into a storage scroll. As soon as Naruto told them they were safe at home, they would be able to fight with no holds barred, until then they were just going to be doing their best to distract the hunter kunoichi, and her master. Sakura and Hinata took several convincing rushes at different points within the mirrored prison, all the while Hinata increased the vibes within the dome, causing the air within to become muggy and humid.

Hinata was just taking another run at the walls, when Sakura received another voice, one she cherishes above all others. "Sakura, honey, how are things going over there," Naruto's voice asked, and though he masked it well, she could detect a mote of anxiety for her safety when he spoke?

"We're about even in skill to this hunter-nin, dear," Sakura answered, "she's activated some sort of mirrored ice-prison, that allows her to move between them very quickly, its only thanks to Hinata-chan, that I don't have more wounds than I do already." While she is a strong, independent woman, and does not need her man's affection to make her feel special, Sakura of Konoha, would be lying if the gasp of concern for her well-being, did not fill her heart with warmth, "it's nothing major, Naruto-kun," she hurriedly assured him, but could not keep her love for him out of her voice, as she added, "you've given me worse than this when we spar, and despite not holding back you always seem to go easier on me, than Hinata. Don't deny it," Sakura admonished him!

"Well, anyway, I've just gotten confirmation, Tazuna has made it safely home," he explained the reason for his call, she smiled at his obvious attempt to change the subject, "so, you can do whatever you need to get back to me."

"Roger that, babe," Sakura stated in a thankful tone of voice, "see you soon." Keying her comm frequency to speak to Hinata, Sakura relayed the same information Naruto had to her, "Hinata-chan, it's time to get serious," she relayed to her teammate.

"Hai, Sakura-chan," Hinata replied, then whispering, "Byakugan," her clan dojutsu blazed forth, which allowed her to locate the real form of their adversary. Then relaying that information to Sakura, "she's located in the mirror on the second story of the mirrors, at 284-degrees, Sakura-kun, take her down!"

"Roger, Hinata-kun," Sakura's voice came over the comms, "here goes nothing."

Shiroyuki had been observing the battle from her vantage point, and she had to admit, these kunoichi were well trained. Because except for that one stray senbon going into the shemagh wearer, she had inflicted no wounds on these women. That was something she had not seen happen outside of her training with Juzo-sama. Thinking of her master, she thought back to her time with her family, when she had unlocked her chakra and discovered her power over ice. Her mother who had always been so gentle and kind to Shiroyuki, raised her hand and struck her daughter. Her mother immediately felt tears well-up within her eyes, and immediately fell to her knees, hugging her daughter, and apologizing profusely for striking Shiroyuki. Her mother rebuked her for using her powers and warned her daughter, to never show them to anybody. What both of them did not know, it was already too late, someone had watched the whole scene play out, and it was Shiroyuki's own father.

He gathered the villagers and stormed into their home. He murdered Shiroyuki's mother, his wife, right in front of Shiroyuki. He would have succeeded in killing his own child, but Shiroyuki's self-preservation instincts kicked-in, and she manifested her kekkei genkai, Kōriton, or Ice Release, killing everybody in her house, including her father.

After that, Shiroyuki lived on the streets, scrounging food and nourishment from garbage, contending with the feral animals wanting to fight over the best hunting grounds. It was during this time, that Juzo-sama found her, sitting on the side of the rode, he said, she had the same look in her eyes that he did… the look of someone with nothing left to lose. He took her in and forged her into a tool, a weapon meant to serve him, and fight for him. Shiroyuki sees her master as her owner, he is precious to her, she would gladly have given herself to him, but he does not like women in that capacity. Still she is his for the asking, if for no reason than to propagate his line, _he does not even have to be in love with me, and I will eagerly give him heirs._

Suddenly, Shiroyuki felt a presence, one of the kunoichi protecting Tazuna-san was behind her, _how did that happen_, she wondered, but it was too late for her to dodge, or even use substitution? She felt the narrow, blunt end of… an energy sword, punch through the back of her mirror and jab her in the back. Shiroyuki fell toward the ground, but at the last moment flipped into a taijutsu stance. Then before her eyes the shemagh wearing kunoichi, leapt high into the air, shouting, "Storm clone technique: Bouncing Betty: flechette style," and in an instant, she began shooting out projectiles of condensed light. The flechettes, as the kunoichi called them, struck Shiroyuki's mirrors, and wherever they struck, they left holes burnt clean through her jutsu. In no time at all, her mirrors collapsed and even began to evaporate right in front of the fake hunter-nin.

As the last of the ice mirrors dissolved, another kunoichi wearing the same thing as her obvious clone, except that the shemagh, was down around her shoulders, came walking through the debris of Shiroyuki's mirrors from the exterior of the dome. _It seems I was the one entrapped this time_, the Kōriton user observed with a wry smile. The kunoichi's pink hair was cut short, and into a bob style doo, she appeared directly in front of Shiroyuki, in her hands were two blades of light, one of which hummed slowly, like the beating of a heart while it rested. The other was humming, very much like that self-same heart, but beating in passion, like it was about to reach a climax, only needing a little more stimulation before it crescendoed. Shiroyuki got the distinct impression that she had been struck by the slow humming blade, she did not know how she reached that conclusion, but if this girl had used the passionate blade, Shiroyuki would have been dead, of that, she had no doubt.

Shiroyuki fell to her knees, and begged, tearfully, "please, kill me, a tool that cannot fulfill its function, is of no use, and needs to be discarded!" The ice user fell forward, placing her forehead on the ground, and awaited her Fate, if she had kept her face up, she would have noticed the look of repugnance latching itself to Sakura's eyes, but an eyebrow quirked up over Hinata's face.

"As you wish, kunoichi-san," Sakura said, "but I refuse to murder someone with their face in the dirt, you will look at me as I take your life!" Shiroyuki rose to seiza, just as the rosette reached Shiroyuki, Sakura's clone used the rest of its chakra and dispelled. Sakura made her thrust with the intention of making her first kill, the blade came within a hairsbreadth of killing the downed kunoichi, and Shiroyuki, further shamed herself, apart from failing her master, by flinching back from the perceived attack, with her eyes closed, in fear. "You're too pretty to allow fear to creep across your face, kunoichi-san," the rosette admonished her, "my name is Sakura no Konoha, and you're coming with us."

Shiroyuki raised a hand and cupped her own face, _when did my mask fall off_, she wondered, then looking around, she spotted it lying a few yards away from her? She looked in that direction and noticed the air was free of the mist associated with, Kirigakure no jutsu. Shiroyuki whipped her head around and saw, standing atop the water, her master, with the other kunoichi and the shinobi, teammates to the two kunoichi that had defeated her, standing with their backs to the kunoichi and her.

There were some clones of the shinobi present, one of them, had grabbed a hold of Juzo-sama's sword arm, preventing him from drawing his sword, another was both being held up by his shirt, by Biwa-sama's other arm, and also holding onto the arm as well, as if to prevent her master from letting go of him, and a final third clone was clinging to Juzo's back, it was almost like it was sticking itself there by a force other than chakra. Juzo finally looked at Shiroyuki, and with a smile full of acceptance and gratitude, and though, she could not hear it, knew his final words were for her, "Thank you," then all went white, and she knew no more.

* * *

The Whirlpool Clan

Naruto threw up his EM-Field to prevent the surplus energy of the explosion, from destroying anything more than he wished to destroy. As it was, there was already a good-sized crater cut into the riverbank, it was already filling with water from the river's tributaries, in an hour or so, there would be a pond here. Those thoughts were on the periphery of his mind though, as he stared at the hunk of charcoal that moments before, was a human body, the one thought that was reverberating in his mind the loudest is, _I just killed someone, someone who, despite coming from a different village, was a genin just like me at one-point. He had family, friends, maybe a lover, maybe not, but he had dreams, ambitions, hopes, and fears, and I've just taken all of that away. Am I truly the monster, the demon, the villagers say I am, what right did I have to take his life?!_

He was about to go even deeper into his self-damnation, when he felt strong, female arms wrap around him from behind. "Stop it, Naruto-kun," she crooned, softly, but intensely, "what you did just now, was necessary, it was what needed to happen!"

Naruto was shocked, then concluded with, "for the mission, sensei?"

"No, not for the mission," Kurenai corrected, "but for something far more important than any mission."

What's that," Naruto asked in surprise?

"Your life, Naruto-kun," she answered intensely, "killing Juzo Biwa-san, was necessary to protect your life."

Naruto turned to look at his team's sensei, "but isn't the mission …"

Kurenai scoffed, "despite the propaganda forced into your head by the Academy, the mission is not the most important thing in a ninja's life, not even the Hokage believes that, it is a ninja's duty to do everything possible, to get back from a mission alive. Your life, the life of your precious ones, those that love you, all of them would be devastated if you didn't come back from your mission."

"But, what about his life, sensei, what makes my life more important than his, why do I get to take his life," Naruto questioned?

"It's not, his life was just as important as yours, he was the same as you, and nobody has the right to take anybody's life," Kurenai told him, while still wrapping her arms around him, "the reason you are alive, while Juzo Biwa-san is dead, is because you made the choice between his life and yours. You were not ready to give up your life, neither was he, but your choices, the strategies you employed, the tactics you used, and in truth, not a little bit of luck or divine providence, were what allowed you to win and stay alive."

Naruto's head drooped in thought, at Kurenai's words, "Choices… and consequences, right sensei?

"That's correct," Kurenai nodded, even if he could not see her, "and just think, if you hadn't made the choices you did, or if they had been the wrong choices, I could've been dead now, too. Then, Juzo, may have gone after, Sakura and Hinata, then he could've gone after the bridge builder at his own home, and who knows what would come afterwards." Naruto's eyes widened as he finally understood the stakes, being a ninja had in store for him, and those he loved, "and I'm going to add something else to what I'm saying," Kurenai broke in on his train of thought. "I've seen ninja revel and cheer once they've gotten their first kill, they consider it a rite-of-passage to make their first kill, and many come to enjoy it, and even look forward to it, and I find that way of thinking abominable. Therefore, I am extremely glad that you've shown so much remorse for killing someone, who would've killed you, if your fortunes were reversed."

Kurenai looked back, having noticed that Sakura, Hinata, and the hunter-nin, had joined them, she made eye contact with Sakura, to assure her, she was only acting as Naruto's sensei at the moment. "That being said, this is a consequence for your actions here today," she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, she stood back and as he turned to regard her, she smiled in warmth and gratitude, "that was for saving my life."

Naruto blushed at the kiss from his sensei, he turned to his Rose to see how she felt about him getting kisses from lips, other than hers. Sakura merely hardened her eyes in false affront, then smiled forgivingly, she understood that Kurenai was not trying to steal her boyfriend. He had just done something, that all of them were going to have to do sometime in the future, and Kurenai-sensei was shepherding him through it, helping him, by putting his actions into perspective. Sakura was not blind either, she knew that while Hinata has given up her claim to Naruto, Kurenai has not yet let go of her feelings for the young Uzumaki. _The only thing keeping, Kurenai-sensei from openly flirting with Naruto was the law forbidding student and teacher fraternization_, came Sakura's thoughts, _which if Naruto is promoted to Chunin, will take him off our team, and he'd be fair game to Yuhi-sensei._

Kunoichi customs and politics, were murky, and Naruto's choice is not the deciding factor, in whom he ends up with. Kurenai could issue a challenge to Sakura, and if the rosette loses, she has to break up with Naruto. Sakura cannot tell him why she would choose to break up with him, she just has to do it. The ironic part of the whole thing though, is Kurenai will never do anything to sabotage her genin kunoichi, she will teach her student everything she needs to know to be strong, even if that strength is the deciding factor in defeating her.

Returning to the present, Sakura returned her smile to her boyfriend, she was barely feeling the weight of the enemy kunoichi draped over her shoulder. The fake hunter-nin had fainted during the explosion, and since it was senseless to leave an enemy just lying around, the two kunoichi of Konoha decided to bring her along, for intelligence on the enemy, if nothing else. This was the sight that greeted Naruto as he took in the rest of his team with a start, before asking, "that's an interesting accessory you've got draped over your shoulder, Sakura-chan," he teased, before getting serious, "I take it you didn't have to kill your opponent to end your fight?"

"No, you're the only one of us to get blooded on this outing," Sakura quipped back, "she seems to be linked to Juzo Biwa-san, I don't know how, but she referred to herself as a tool when we were able to talk with her." Sakura turned to their sensei, "she fainted from emotional shock when Biwa-san died, and I added a small amount of medical chakra, which should keep her down until we can question her and figure out what to do with her. She possesses the Bloodline Limit, Kōriton – Ice Release, and seems to prefer using senbon over other types of weapons," she reported to her sensei, _and romantic rival_, "her Ice Prison Jutsu, would have been a fairly effective trap, for anyone not inside of it."

Naruto had walked over to the corpse of Juzo Biwa and looked down at him, despite the charred remains, the super-ninja's head and face were largely intact, and the Executioner's blade, still on his back was completely unblemished. "Good-bye, Juzo Biwa-san, I am truly sorry for taking your life, but I wasn't ready to die yet. I've no goals for the future other than to find love, true love, and maybe restart the Uzumaki clan, one generation at a time," he added, then continued, "while I know we were from different villages and Konoha could learn a lot from your body, I will honor your life the way a true ninja would wish to be honored." Thus, Naruto reached down and removed Kubikiribōchō from the deadman's back, harness and all, and placed them in a storage scroll. Then, he summoned Totsuka-no-tsurugi from his back, and with a stylish flourish, and a low sweep, severed the missing-nin's head from his corpse in one motion. It was so fast, the corpse's congealing blood, did not even have time to adhere to the blade, the incidental follow-through motion, would have flung the blade free of blood, if there had been any. Naruto had summoned and made his cut, including the flourish, and then the blade was returned to its dimension, all within a single, second.

Naruto picked up the head of Biwa Juzo, S-ranked, Nuke-nin, from Kirigakure no Sato, in Mizu no kuni, killed in action by Uzumaki Naruto, Genin of Team Seven, aka. Blood Squad or Ketsueki buntai from Konohagakure no Sato and placed it within another storage scroll, of its own. As he completed his duties to the ninja he had slain, he felt two discharges of chakra on his left and right, the chakra reached the corpse which ignited, and almost immediately the only thing remaining of Juzo Biwa, were ashes. He looked and saw all of his teammates, standing side-by-side with solemn expressions on their faces. The two kunoichi that could use fire had their hands in the Tora hand seal, a clear sign that they had expelled the chakra he felt.

Naruto smiled at them in gratitude, he was not very good with fire chakra, yet. They all returned his smile, the unconscious kunoichi was nowhere in sight, leading Naruto to the conclusion that she was also taking up residence within a storage scroll. Kurenai returned his smile with warmth, then got serious, "okay, let's head to our destination, we've accomplished more than enough here today, and as tough and strong as kunoichi are, I, for one, need to take a bath," she finished her comment with a leering wink, at Naruto.

* * *

Under Currents

Among the trees within the forest on the previously running stream, two sets of eyes had watched the entire fight, from start to finish. Both were ryoshi-nin, and both were from Mizu-no-kuni, however only one of them was from the Village Hidden in the Mist, and the other was from the rebellion taking place against the incumbent Mizukage. The Mist hunter ninja was astounded and disgusted, at the current turn of events.

The disgust came from witnessing the battle of Blood-freaks, and because one of the Seven Swords of the Mist was now in the hands of those tree-hugging, Leaf ninja. Hunter-nin are among the few ninja that can cross borders into other countries at will, they enjoyed a form of diplomatic immunity among ninja. They are free to take any bounty they are capable of taking, even pursuing them across national borders, and unless the nation is in open warfare against the hunter's nation, there is little legal recourse or restriction that may be imposed upon any ryoshi-nin. The reason for the so-called immunity, is because hunters are instrumental in providing data on ninja to be placed within, The Book of Shinobi, more commonly known as, The Bingo Book. There are two restrictions that a hunter-nin may never violate in order to get a bounty: 1) never interfere in another ninja village's ninja during a mission, even if they end-up usurping the hunter's bounty, once the bounty is dead or in custody of said ninja, a hunter-nin, may not interfere; and 2) if the missing ninja seeks refuge in another ninja village, capital city, or any type of merchant ship, a hunter-nin must stop pursuit immediately.

Yet, despite the repugnance of the official hunter-nin, there was a begrudging respect forming within him as well. He had just witnessed the demise of one of the most formidable ninja, ever to come out of the Village Hidden in the Mist, that in and of itself was a noteworthy feat. What made the occasion even more astonishing was because, Juzo Biwa-san, Nuke-nin of the Mist, also known as, the Nightmare who paints the battlefields, met his end at the hands of a Genin. He was a Bloodline Freak, but he should still not have been a match for one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. _I must report this to the Mizukage,_ the hunter thought, then cursed in his thoughts, _shit, there's no way, Karatachi-sama will believe this in any message I send. I have to report this to him person…_ and the Mist hunter-nin's head, suddenly lolled to the side and a trickle of blood came out of his nose, his body suddenly went limp, listing to the side before falling to ground like a sack of rice.

Behind, where the dead hunter had lain in wait, cleaning the kunai he had used to eliminate, any chance of the preceding battle's outcome from reaching his enemy, lay another legend of the Bloody Mists. He was the sole survivor of his graduating class, and a master of the Silent-Killing technique, he was known by most through the nickname, Demon of the Mists, Zabuza Momochi. He was acting as the ryoshi-nin for the revolutionary forces opposing the current, Sandaime Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, they were being led by the current head of the Terumi clan, Mei Terumi. While young, even at seventeen years of age, she had proven herself time and time again, not just through strength, but as a capable leader and galvanizing figure, that she had earned her status as Jonin by the time she was fifteen, and later during the Bloody Mist Uprising. This was the reason why she had been elected leader of the rebel army, her beauty and the fact that she carried two kekkei genkai, were very much beside the point.

Zabuza and the rest of her forces would go through Hell and back for her, and she well knew it, which was what Zabuza was doing out here. While the rebel forces had been holding their own quite well against Yagura's ninja, it had not been without a few losses in personnel, and while the Mizukage had an entire economy to draw upon to replenish his forces, Mei did not have such a luxury. Zabuza was sent on a recruiting and resources mission, basically he was to recruit ninja among the dregs of the missing-nin, not for their prowess, of course, more to act as jutsu-fodder. The more Yagura had to expend in terms of firepower the more weakened his forces became, and if they refused to join, well, there was another way missing-nin could be useful. They would fill the coffers of the rebel army.

Zabuza was just as shocked about the outcome of this battle, as his now dead enemy, but he was also disappointed that he would not have been able to at least approach his idol, Juzo Biwa-san. The might of the S-ranked ninja would have bolstered the rebel army, and may have insured their victory, one way or the other. Now, however, _those plans were dashed all to hell, by some snot-nosed genin who more than likely got lucky,_ still, even Momochi had to give the kid some grudging respect, even ninja as skilled as himself, would have had difficulty taking on a shinobi as powerful, as the Nightmare. "I'd better report this to Mei-chan," he growled, then he smiled and added, as he began making his way home to the Land of Water, "isn't it interesting to find members of her mother's clan, alive and well, and living in Konoha."

* * *

The Unpredictable Maelstrom 

_Fifteen Days Later_

When Team Seven, and the ANBU, arrived at the bridge, half a month later, they were prepared for what may come. They had trained and progressed in water-walking to the point that they could literally run around the Archipelago of Nami no kuni. They had trained themselves into exhaustion before getting back up and training some more, to be honest, they were as ready as they would ever be for the fight that was to come. Whether, they won or lost this battle, they knew there was nothing more they could do, it was all in the hands of Kami-sama, and their own choices in battle.

Shiroyuki, the Tool of the Uzumaki clan of Konoha, had been ordered to stay back at the home of Tazuna no Nami, to better protect Tazuna's family, just in case they were kidnapped to use as leverage. Over the past two-weeks, she had proven herself to be a trusted ally, helping each and every one of them in their training, and in turn, they have helped her improve as well, not just in ninja skills but to become a more independent person. The term Tool is what ninja use to describe a Vassal, one that belonged to the clan, with all the rights and privileges of other ninja, but instead of being loyal to a village, she was loyal only to the clan that owned her. She could love, breed, and speak her mind, to whomever she wanted, though she was answerable for her conduct as was any citizen of Konoha, and if the village did not punish her, the Uzumaki clan could. Her name had been changed, to Uzumaki Shiroyuki, and was now a member of that clan. In terms of ninja skills, she was given the Kubikiribōchō, and had to learn kenjutsu as all Uzumaki are required to do, it did not have to be her primary skill, but she had to at least hold her own as a swordswoman.

Shiroyuki, was not the only combatant to have improved her skills in the last two weeks, the other ninja in the group have all made good strides in their training. The three Jonin had each improved in individual skills, as well as, team skills. Yugao, Hayate, and Naruto, not to mention Shiroyuki had trained and practiced their kenjutsu, and surprisingly the ice user had already mastered the basics of swordsmanship, under the tutelage of her late master. As A Result, all they needed to do was introduce her to Hiten-Musashi-ryu, the sword style of the Whirlpool clan. Every Uzumaki could adapt other sword styles that suited them best, but all of them were required to learn the Uzumaki blade. Naruto and Shiroyuki were even inducted into the basics of Tsuki-Mitsurugi-ryu, Gekkō Hayate's kendo. Yugao, being Hayate's girlfriend, was already at the advanced stages of said style, and it harmonized quite well with Hiten-Musashi-ryu.

Speaking of Gekkō Hayate, he no longer coughed like he did before, or at all, and it was all thanks to Naruto and Hinata. When medical chakra was used on him, it worked for a few days, and then the cough would return, nobody knew why. Naruto ended up having to use his AVS technique, and when he turned it upon his future in-law, he found several spots on his lungs, they appeared to be from a virus, until they found an unusual growth. It was a cyst, which seemed to have rooted itself within the branches of Hayate's lungs, it seemed to thrive on medical chakra. When medical chakra was used, it gathered the chakra up like a jelly fish in the ocean, and retracted its tentacles, until it grew hungry again. Naruto and Hinata, with Sakura and Shiroyuki as a guide were able to isolate it, Naruto encircled the mass with his EM-Field, while Hinata killed it on the molecular-level. They were able to move it up his trachea and out of his mouth, they have it preserved for study to determine what it is, for medical purposes, just in case. Hayate-san was laid-up for about five days, receiving treatment from the two medical ninja of their band.

Speaking of the Hyuga, Hinata managed to create her own cloning technique. She calls them, Resonance Wave clones, Tomonari Harō no bunshin, they are as fragile as Shadow Clones, along with nearly everything else being similar, but they have one advantage over the former jutsu. Hinata, can receive real-time data from her clones, as opposed to getting the information once they have been dispelled, the Hyuga heiress gets it live with no delays. She can close that ability down if she wishes, so she does not have to share her awareness, and switch between clones, or get all of the data at once, though the strain of keeping focus does take a toll. She decided to learn Naruto's Senko bunshin-jutsu, which added its own benefit, because in addition to being able to create their own Harō clones, Flash clones can also resonate with previously made Wave clones, and they get the real time streaming when they harmonize with the clones.

Every ninja of Konoha and the Tool of the Uzumaki, in just two-weeks had become a force to be reckoned with, well mainly the Genin. The other four, the two Jonin, the Tokubetsu Jonin (Tokujo), and Shiroyuki, were already at that mark or were quickly approaching it. The Genin, had nearly perfected their taijutsu, and only experience would allow them to progress beyond their current skill-level. Their ninjutsu, which of course included their Bloodlines, was second to none for Genin, and would even make a few Chunin proud. When they had left the Leaf, all three Genin had all but mastered breaking out of genjutsu, and only S-ranked genjutsu was beyond their grasp. Konoha law, forbade placing such high-ranking illusions on fellow Leaf ninja or citizens, S-ranked are the class of illusions that can kill people. Only by obtaining permission from the Hokage, and only under strict guidelines, could S-ranked genjutsu be practiced.

The advanced ninja of the Leaf had even improved themselves, as formidable as they were before, now they realized that as soon as they had achieved their current ranking they had stopped trying as hard. They realized they had lost that hunger, that drive to improve themselves, and their training in the past couple of weeks had been to try and get back and keep, the eye of the tiger. (A/N: wink) The fierce look illuminating their eyes as they walked onto the nearly completed bridge, said that their training had been successful. Kurenai and Yugao realized, if they wanted to defeat the old way of looking at kunoichi, then they had to step-up, and show the world that other women could rise to the same heights as Tsunade of the Sanin. Gekkō, now that his affliction had been cured, and his lungs were healthy, could now look forward to rising in rank to true Jonin, and perhaps even further. He had begun to wonder if he could find a summoning contract for lizards, his little boy fantasies, that all men, no matter how old, have, now included: _Hayate Gekkō, the Tokage Sen'nin, Sage of the Lizards._

The Leaf ninja learned many things while here in Nami, that were not related to their work as ninja, by now, Naruto and Gekkō have become journeyman construction workers, while the kunoichi learned what it took to run such a business. As they approached the bridge, the workers had not yet arrived, which had become standard operating procedure since the Konoha ninja arrived. They would go to the bridge every morning, and check out the scene, then if the coast was clear, they would send out clones to their homes, telling them it was time for work. Of course, even with that extra layer of security, it had not stopped Tazuna from hemorrhaging staff, it had gotten so bad that last week, the bridge-builder had almost had to close down to hire more workers. It would have come to that, if it had not been for Naruto and Gekkō. When the blonde Genin heard what their employer was contemplating, he offered himself, and his Senko no bunshin to fill the positions. Tazuna was blown away, and asked why the boy was doing this for him, Naruto just shook his head, and replied, "it's not for you, old man, this bridge may have started as your dream, but it has now become a symbol of hope, and false hope is worse than no hope at all. If you stop now, I fear you may never be able to start again, and then, this whole mission would have been for nothing," the boy's smile, and the look in his eyes, told Tazuna that his assertions were not from naïve idealism, but from a person who had experienced such things. Hayate Gekkō added his own help through his own Flash clones, not to mention his previous experience from other missions.

It was not just the actual construction workers that felt threatened, but the office staff as well, and even before Tazuna returned with help from Konoha, the office and supply managers had either quit or disappeared. Tsunami, Tazuna's young daughter, a woman of about twenty, had to quit school in Hi no kuni to return home and take over the office. She was a pretty, young lady, taller than most and one of the few civilian women not to look down on kunoichi, she treated all of the ladies the way she treated any woman close to her age, as a friend in the making. She was very good at what she did, but even she could not do everything in the office by herself, so the kunoichi using their own clones learned how to run the day-to-day operations big construction projects need.

Thus, Team Blood, the ANBU, and the Tool, in addition to normal ninja training, and guard duty, learned how to perform construction work, they of course were new to this type of work, and had to start at the bottom like everybody. They learned quickly, with their cloning techniques, about 500 per day total, were able to learn from mistakes and accomplishments, their retention rate was astronomical.

Naruto and Hinata suddenly stiffened, they looked over at the others and gave a silent nod, their enemies were waiting for them. When they walked onto the bridge, the day was bright and clear, and standing amidst the wreckage of their construction equipment, stood four individuals, three shinobi, and one kunoichi. The kunoichi seemed to be the leader, since the men stood exactly one step behind her.

As the groups approached, the ninja assessed each other as they drew near, Naruto was no exception. His Kidogan blazed from behind his visor and balaclava, the kunoichi was tall, a few centimeters taller than, Kurenai-sensei, and slightly more voluptuous. Her hair was an auburn shade but styled in a way, meant to distract the eye and draw it to where she wanted you to look. The majority of it went down her back, with locks of it peeking around the front, some of it had been styled into a topknot, but it was her bangs that distracted an opponent the most. There were four of them, two short and two long, the short ones were the most unusual, one was combed traditionally until just above the left eyebrow, the second was combed until it reached below her right eye. This configuration would probably lead many an assailant to believe it was an opening, but Naruto could tell, despite covering her right-eye, that lock of hair was pretty thin, she would never lose enough of her visibility to make any attacks on her right-side, a sure thing. The long bangs, however, were a blatant distraction, since both of them descended until they almost touched her cleavage, stopping right at the neckline of her ocean-blue, long-sleeved, calf-length dress. The skirt had been shorn off, starting at her right hip just below her white belt, and moving down her left-leg until it reached her mid-calf. Her right hip was covered with a dark-gray mini-skirt, and though he could only see her right side from his perspective, mesh armor covered her body from her neckline down to her toes. Both legs were covered by light-gray, knee-length, shin-guards, with matching sandals. The only visible weapons were a pair of swords, sheathed at her waist perpendicular to her spine. The only visible part Naruto could see, were the non-descript brown hilts and dull metal tsuba, coming out from behind her on both sides.

The three men standing behind her, were as unique as one could get. From oldest to youngest, was a man appearing to be in his late forties, early fifties, with blue-hair that was heavily moussed to a point. He only had one blue-eye, is right, and the left was covered by an eye-patch, his ears were accessorized with a pair of earrings that had the kanji character, 'to hear,' written on them. Naruto could tell from his vantage point, that they were some sort of rudimentary seal but could not determine their purpose without closer study. His clothes, consisted of the standard Kiri pinstriped suit, and ocean-hued robe, trimmed in white-stripes, it looked like the same hunter-nin robe worn by Shiroyuki at their first encounter. Naruto, however, concluded that where his Tool's wardrobe was fake, this man here was very much the real kunai, he was a true hunter-nin. He stood on the left side of the woman, on the far side of the bridge from Naruto, but standing on her right, was a tall, muscular man with sallow skin, and black spiky-hair. His forehead protector was turned side-ways, and on his body, Naruto could see the neckline of a dark shirt, with matching, baggy pants, over which he wore the same ryoshi-nin robe as the older man. The sleeves, however, were short, and so was the cut of the robe, it ended at his mid-calf the same as the kunoichi's, thus revealing mimetic wrist and leg-warmers, and shinobi sandals. He also carried a standard katana, strapped to his back. The third and final shinobi, stood facing Naruto directly, he was in his late-teens, early twenties, he was short for his age, only slightly taller than Naruto. He had short blue-hair, dark eyes, and when he opened his lips, Naruto could see a row of sharpened teeth, a sure sign that he was a member of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist. Every swordsperson worth their rice, knew about the Seven, and knew about or had at least heard about their blades. Naruto looked past the young man's clothes, and studied the bandage wrapped bundle on his back, noting the double-hilts peaking up over the right-shoulder. _That's got to be, Hiramekarei_, he concluded, _Kiba-ken, are the only other blades that can be considered two blades, but they're supposed to be slender with a couple of horns along the blade. These look like he's got a fish strapped to his back_, Naruto mused as he assessed his opponents.

Naruto briefly turned his eyes, to cast his gaze down the line to his teammates and family, _I consider them all my family, and I will protect them at all costs._ He would be facing this man on his own, for now, because between him and Hinata and Sakura, who would battle the old man, was his aunt, Yugao and his future in-law, Hayate Gekkō, they would face the tall guy. _Two Genin facing down, a veteran Jonin, with more experience than even Kurenai-sensei, talk about long odds of winning, let alone surviving. I'm not so worried about, Yugao-oba-chan or Gekkō-san, they're ANBU, they probably face down guys like this all the time, and it's two-on-one._ Looking beyond the ANBU, Naruto saw that Kurenai-sensei was facing the enemy kunoichi alone as well, while Naruto had every faith in her abilities, that's not how Konoha-nin fight. _We fight as a team, whenever possible, we always try to outnumber opponents_, he remembered, _me and Kurenai-sensei, are alone at the moment, I'm going to try to rectify that. He might be one of the Seven, but I'll wager a whole month of Ramen, that the kunoichi is the most dangerous, and powerful of all four of them. I need to even the odds_, he resolved!

While the other members of his team began chatting with their enemies, Naruto just began a casual stride toward the swordsman. "Are you, really one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist," Naruto asked?

Chōjūrō could not help the proud smile that crossed his face, "Hai, Konoha-nin-san, I am."

Before the Mist ninja rebel could react, Naruto leveled his blaster at his enemy's face and said, "Plasma Release: Blaster Bolt," he snapped, as an angry-red light shot at the young man, faster than the speed of sound! It struck him right between the eyes, breaking his glasses, but the kinetic force of the blast was so strong it flung the kid, several meters back down the bridge. He landed hard on the stone surface, before rolling another meter and stopping with his back to everybody. Almost immediately, a pool of blood began to spread out and away from the body of the Mist ninja.

The shockingly, brutal display of power, had stunned everybody into silence and immobility, but it was not over. As soon as, the body came to a halt, Naruto used his photokinetics to lift the blades free of the body, and flung them out into the bay, where they sank to the depths. Satisfied with his handy work, Naruto returned his blaster to its holster, then summoning his ten-fist sword, he spun around with a solemn look on his face, "now that the numbers are about even, let's get to it!"


End file.
